birding in Costa Rica off the beaten track

Costa Rica is not a vast country. We don’t have endless landscapes that leap past the horizon and yet, there’s still much to discover. The humid tropical forests are packed with dense vegetation, looped with life. Hidden wetlands beckon and lurk from valleys, and even old overlooked fields could hide a Lesser Ground-Cuckoo.

Lesser Ground Cuckoos are fairly common but skulky.

What else shelters in “the weeds”?

As with every coast, seawatching is an open window to tantalizing opportunities. What will fly by today? What might wander in from distant marine realms, however small the possibility? Costa Rica’s dual shores provide two such chances at lottery birding redemption.

Even in the same old birding places, there’s always more to see. Bird some of the richer spots and you could get lifers on every one of a dozen visits (no kidding, you just gotta know where to go birding in Costa Rica). You could also stick to the popular birding circuit and connect with literally hundreds of species.

You can’t go wrong but, for the more adventurous, additional birding corners await exploration. These are places off the beaten track, too far from other sites to fit into tours or just too plain far. For a country the size of West Virginia, as one might surmise, such less visited sites tend to be close to Panama or Nicaragua.

Last weekend, we visited one of those far off places. It’s a spot I have wanted to check for some time but have always ended up birding similar sites that were just a little bit closer. That place is Gandoca and it’s pretty much right at the end of the road.

Gandoca is a tiny settlement just on the other side of the Gandoca-Manzanillo Reserve. Go there and you’re almost in Panama. Heck, on the way there, you can see forested hills in Panama that probably host Harpy Eagle. No such mega massive eagle welcomed us in Gandoca but we still had some fun and exciting birding. Check out the eBird trip report and some observations and suggestions based on this past trip:

The Road in to Gandoca is Bumpy and Not very Birdy

The highway is wonderful. Really. No holes, quick, easy-going, that’s not what you usually find in Costa Rica! However, once you turn off the highway, you’ll be in for several kilometers of classic, rocky road bumpiness.

It’s not too bad but just saying, it’s good to be prepared. The birding on the way in isn’t so great either. Yes, it’s Ok but at least half the road passes through banana farms, tree farms, and some pasture. We rode in at night with hopes of uncommon nightjars but nope, only Common Pauraques, at least on that night.

The Best Habitat is near Gandoca and the Colibri Ecolodge

The title says it all. The best habitats are the forests closer to Gandoca and the Colibri Ecolodge (Colibri Cabinas). Although they weren’t primary forest, they were still old enough to host a fair number of forest birds. I bet they could also host a surprise or two.

Black-striped Woodcreeper was present along with several Cinnamon and Chestnut-colored Woodpeckers.

Rufescent Tiger-Heron! Uniform Crake! Hermits in Abundance!

I suppose these were our “best birds”. The tiger-heron was hanging out in a backyard ditch at the Colibri. Amazingly, we almost missed it! Luckily, we ran into Richard Garrigues (author of the Birds of Costa Rica) and some of his family. Richard told us about the tiger-heron and a few seconds later, we were all admiring this uncommon Costa Rica bird at close range.

The crake wasn’t surprising, this species is actually quite common in Costa Rica. However, you don’t get to see those mammal wannabes all that much. On our final morning, while admiring a caiman in a roadside pool, a juvenile Uniform Crake came scooting out of the forest and let us watch it pick at the edge of the water. We were pleased that the caiman didn’t turn around and try for a crake sandwich.

As for the hermits, they were just nice and common. It’s always nice to constantly hear and see Long-billed Hermits in action but the birding gets better when all four possible species appear.

Serious Migration

We truly lucked out on Saturday. On Friday night, there must have been a huge wave of migration. In the morning, invisible, buzzing Dickcissels passed overhead while small flocks of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Scarlet and Summer Tanagers, and Swainson’s Thrushes foraged in the trees.

The foliage was also full of Bay-breasted Warblers, and wood-pewees and a few Empids sallied from the forest edge. An Olive-sided Flycatcher topped a snag, and Eastern Kingbirds flew into view.

No cuckoos seen nor other rare birds but it was still marvelous.

Not to mention, the migrants busied fruiting figs with trogons, Crested Guans, chachalacas, tanagers, and other local birds. Stuff was busy, it was deep chocolate goodness.

Check for New Birds for Costa Rica

One other thing I highly recommend while visiting Gandoca is looking for new birds for Costa Rica. I’m ashamed to admit I did not carry out this honorable task as much as I should have. However, in the future, I would suggest seriously looking for Pacific Antwren, White-tailed Trogon, Blue Cotinga, Cocoi Heron, Cattle Tyrant, Carib Grackle, and Rufous-breasted Hermit.

I daresay any of these birds are possible in that area (perhaps more along the main highway) and is why I included them on the Costa Rica Birding App as “not seen” birds. The hermit in particular could be easily overlooked. I mean it looks extremely similar to a Bronzy Hermit, you’ll need photos that show the undertail coverts and the face.

Bird Other, Nearby, Little Birded Sites

Bird Gandoca for sure but if you can, it’s also worth dedicating time to birding other sites in the area. Those would be places like the Paradise Road, sites near Bribri, Manzanillo, and the RECOPE road to name a few.

Visit Gandoca and you gotta be ready to drive for a good ways. Make sure your car is charged and don’t expect many stores in the area but you will find peace. You’ll also see a lot of birds, maybe something mega.

The best places for birding in Costa Rica don’t have to be the most visited places, they just need to be the places with the best habitat. Then again, “best places” are subjective, they depend on the birder doing the talking, what someone prefers to see, or how a person prefers to go birding.

“Best birding” for birders who would much rather scan for shorebirds might not include a walk in rainforest. There are birders who would rather watch migrating raptors than study the subtleties of flycatcher plumages, and many people prefer the nice looks that come from easy-going edge birding rather than catching glimpses of occasional rare birds in places shaded by towering trees.

For me, I suppose the best places for birding depend on what I want to see, the number of birds present, and the variety of birds available. Based on those factors, I tend to lean towards sites with extensive forested habitats. Such places host the highest avian diversity and even though dense vegetation, tall trees, and low light conditions present challenges, patient watching still yields results. However, I would be remiss if I did not mention that forest also lends itself to earbirding; something I do just as much or even more than sight birding.

Although I find all natural habitats interesting, I have also, always been partial to forest. As a young person, that’s where I took the wild things to be. In my pre-teen mind, the forests of the Southern Tier of New York state, Pennsylvania, and Algonquin were where the birds lived. I would gaze at maps and look for the wild places, the areas with the most amount of forest and imagine what lived therein and how much more area used to be covered with extensive stands of massive, ancient trees.

These days, we can look at satellite maps, see where the remaining forests occur, note where to focus reforestation efforts, and where we might find the best sites for birding, at least for birding in rainforest. In Costa Rica, one of those better, little birded sites is the road that leads to the Manuel Brenes Reserve. Like other country roads, it’s not paved and a combination of mud and rocks doesn’t make it very suitable for a small vehicle with two wheel drive. However, it is flanked by good-sized areas of intact foothill rainforest and that’s why the birding is simply excellent.

Yesterday, my partner and I paid a visit to that site, one that was long overdue. During a morning of birding, we identified 90 species, these were some highlights:

Three-wattled Bellbirds

Quite often, birding at this site is accompanied by the loud calls of bellbirds. Start birding near the entrance and you might hear one or two of these cool cotingas calling from somewhere in your auditory surroundings. Venture further on the road and you get much closer. With luck, you might see one perched high above but just as often, they are in trees just out of sight, just out of reach.

Mixed Flocks with Tanagers and More

This particular site can have fantastic mixed flocks. Some of the best I have ever seen in Costa Rica have happened on this road; dizzying flocks with too many birds to look at. Yesterday morning, compared to past visits, mixed flock activity was a bit subdued but we still managed to come across a few that yielded close looks at Emerald, Speckled, and Black-and-yellow Tanagers along with less colorful birds like Russet Antshrike and Eye-ringed Flatbill.

Russet Antshrike from another day and place.

Northern Schiffornis

This plain brown bird doesn’t look like much and can be tough to see in its dim understory home but what it may lack in looks, it makes up for with its intriguing whistled song. We heard at last two of these special rainforest birds and also enjoyed listening to other songs of the foothill rainforest; the complex song of the Nightingale Wren and the simple phrases of Black-headed Nightingale-Thrushes.

Quality Species Heard

Other uncommon species we heard included Lattice-tailed Trogon (at least 5!), Purplish-backed Quail-Dove, Bicolored and Ocellated Antbirds, and Streak-crowned Antvireo.

The road to Manuel Brenes isn’t regularly visited on tours and its not in the best of shape but the birding is always good. I would love to spend a few days exploring that road and also visiting at night. Including the small marsh at the beginning of the road, it already has a 400 plus species list, I wonder what else uses those beautiful, mossy forests?

To learn more about where to watch birds in Costa Rica, support this blog and buy “How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica”.