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A Day of Birding near Carara, Costa Rica- Updates and Tips

Going birding around Carara National Park, Costa Rica? If so, good choice, a birder can’t go wrong with such a mega meeting of biodiversity. Too much for one day but you can still try, the constant new bunch of birds can keep you going, keep you seeing more birds until you can’t see no more. Of course you don’t have to throw all your birding eggs into a one day basket; not an ideal choice for any area with more than 100 possibilities and far from the best option for birding areas with species lists that run into the hundreds.

However, if you only have one full day to work with or, one day and morning, what are you gonna do? Throw up those birding hands and sip creative cocktails? Heck no, if you got the energy, what you do is bird as much as you can and then celebrate with post birding cold beers or cocktails or wild and crazy kombucha. Don’t do yourself in, pace yourself but, you might as well keep on birding, at least in places where hundreds of lifers are waiting.

Carara National Park and surroundings is one such “place”. This major ecotone blends so many bird rich habitats, you’d be much better off patiently birding the zone for 3 or 4 days. One day is a lot, one day can be a major challenge, especially if you go for humid forest birds in the morning and dry forest birds in the afternoon.

I did that yesterday with a few guys from Toledo. The weather cooperated, I forgot to put on sunblock and it was a marathon day of birding in Costa Rica but it all worked out. After birding two main routes from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., we finished with more than 150 species. Yeah, some of those were heard onlys but lots more were seen including such niceties as King Vulture, Black Hawk-Eagle, Crane Hawk, Double-striped Thick-Knee, Mangrove Cuckoo, Velvety Manakin, Riverside Wren, Golden-naped Woodpecker, etc., etc.

It’s pretty birdy up in the Carara area, if you plan on checking it out, aside from suggesting working in at least 3 days for the area, here’s some other updates and tips.

Road Work on the Tarcoles Bridge

Roadwork on the famous “Crocodile Bridge” continues and won’t end at least until May. It is open but the new speed bumps can cause some traffic jams both ways and, traffic jams will be worse during one lane closures. These will take place as so:

-Feb. 23 to March 27

-May 4 to May 9

-Closed at night from 9 PM to 5 AM on yet to be determined dates from March 15 to April 20.

During roadwork, crocodile viewing is also prohibited from the bridge but, I’m not sure how much that will be enforced. However, if you still want to see crocs, don’t frown yet! There are plenty of boat trips for close looks and a brand new thingee has also just opened at the bridge. It’s called the Croc Skywalk and looks like it will eventually offer crocodile viewing along with other tourist activities. As I drove past, I saw a whole bunch of buses and people there yesterday. I look forward to checking it from a birding perspective and including it in the next update for my Costa Rica birding site guide.

Start the Bijagual Road Back as Far as You Can Go (use 4 wheel drive)

Carara isn’t just the national park. There’s also several other birding options including the Bijagual Road. This great birdy route starts near the coast and then makes its way into the hills adjacent to and in back of the national park. Follow Route 320 long enough to Route 319 and you’ll even access the very little birded but excellent eastern part of Carara. You’ll need a four wheel drive and that might not be good enough for the furthest stretches of route 319 but it will be exciting!

At the least, if you do spend some time on this road, I suggest driving back on it pre-dawn so you can start the birding near El Sur. This is a bit past the turn off to Macaw Lodge and gets you way back into the wild and least accessed part of Carara. As I was saying, past El Sur, road conditions might be impossible for a 4 wheel drive but it will still be worth starting way back in there. You can look for various owls and other nocturnal birds en route and will be in the right place at dawn.

Try to bird the road past El Sur but, if not, it would still be worth checking roadside forest near the turn off for Macaw Lodge and on other parts of the road. The combination of mature rainforest, second growth, canopy views, and some open fields is a good recipe for a very birdy, high total morning.

It’s the best area around Carara for Black Hawk-Eagle (although we got one soaring high over the Pura Vida gardens), has birds not generally found in the park like Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet, Pale-breasted Spinetail, Thick-billed Euphonia, and even occasional Streaked Saltator and White-lined Tanager. Other weird stuff could also occur, maybe even Tiny Hawk and there should be chances at the rare Turquoise Cotinga.

You’ll still need four wheel drive to get to the Macaw Lodge area and El Sur but it will be worth it.

Hummingbirds?

We had a good, long day with lots of birds but, I can’t help but mention one downside and it’s a reoccurring one; the lack of hummingbirds. Yes, they are still out there but not nearly in the numbers they used to be and it is disturbing to say the least. And no, it’s not just a lack of flowers or that they are all somewhere else. There are fewer hummingbirds overall. For example, some ten years ago or even less, any trip to Carara National Park or nearby would easily result in a dozen species (and several of each species). Yesterday, in humid forest, I only had Rufous-taileds and maybe a couple other species on the Bijagual Road.

Sadly, this appears to be the new normal for humid forest habitats in several parts of Costa Rica and must be a consequence of climate change having disrupted flowering and insect productivity. So far, those hummingbirds are still out there and can be found, but it’s not the easy, expected task it used to be. Imagine suddenly seeing one tenth of the hummingbirds you used to at feeders and flowering gardens and you’ll get the picture.

Eyes on the Sky for Raptors

When birding anywhere around Carara, it’s worth to keep checking the sky. Several raptors occur in the area and the Bijagual/Macaw Lodge area is an excellent area to watch for them. The hilly topography makes it possible to scope the canopy for perched raptors and there’s plenty of sky to scan for birds in flight.

On our morning visit, we didn’t have too many raptors but, I bet more dedicated raptor viewing would turn up more. On the Bijagual Road, we had:

-A couple of Broad-winged Hawks

-One calling Gray Hawk

-One or two Roadsides

-Both caracaras

-Calling Laughing Falcon

-Black Hawk-Eagle

-Double-toothed Kite

-King Vulture and the other two vultures

In dry forest on the Guacimo Road, we also had excellent views of a Crane Hawk and a Common Black Hawk.

Bajamar Mangroves were Frighteningly Dry

While birding the Guacimo Road, I was eager to get back to the mangroves at Bajamar. On past visits, whistling like a pygmy-0wl was an easy way to bring in mangrove specialties like Panama Flycatcher and Mangrove Hummingbird and with various other species.

Not this time. I was surprised to see that hardly any mangrove birds responded. I also noticed that the mangrove forest floor was uncharacteristically dry. It should have been muddy and buggy but, instead, it looked like the water hadn’t reached there for a while. Nearby lagoons had water but nothing seemed to be reaching the mangroves, I can’t help but wonder if that explained those bird’s absence.

With that in mind, you’ll need to get in your mangrove birding at other spots (like Tarcoles or elsewhere).

As always, after coming back from birding such high biodiversity sites in Costa Rica, I can’t wait to go back. I go home with all sorts of questions and the only means of answering them is going right back there and birding again. How many owls are out there? Potoos? Wintering nightjars? Cotingas and other uncommon species? No matter how often you go birding in Costa Rica, there’s always lots more to see. I hope you get the chance to experience it.

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Tips for Birding Costa Rica Around Carara

During the past week, I had a long, fruitful day in the Carara area. No surprise there, that’s usually how the birding goes in that mega ecotone. While birding from Orotina to Tarcoles, near Villa Lapas, and on the Cerro Lodge entrance road, we identified 167 species. Check out the trip report!

And no, we did not enter Carara National Park; we’ll have to go birding in that fine forest another day. But how can you visit the Carara area and not bird in the national park? For the best of reasons- the area has way too many birds to see in just one day. Check out these tips to give the Carara area justice:

A Day is Great but Three Days are Always Better

We had great looks at Lesser Ground-Cuckoo on the Cerro Lodge road.

You can’t go wrong with a day of birding in the Carara area but you’re better off spending 2 or 3 nights. It’s often so hot, you might want to spend much of the afternoon in a pool anyways.

We could have easily birded the Ceiba de Orotina Road and the nearby Guacima-Bajamar area all day (with a leisurely break for lunch). Likewise, the Bijagual road has so many possibilities, you could spend two full days birding it and see 200 species. Carara National Park also merits a day or two, and you could also spend a morning or late afternoon birding by boat on the Tarcoles River (check out my Costa Rica bird finding guide and birding companion to learn more about these sites and strategies to adequately bird this area).

Spending at least two nights also makes it easier to look for the 9 species of owls and other night birds that live in the area!

The Bijagual Road is Good but Watch the Traffic

On the Bijagual Road, we had some quick and exciting birding just uphill from Villa Lapas. It was pretty hot but a bunch of birds eventually showed. However, there was also quite a bit of traffic. There’s usually some cars and trucks but there were more than usual the other day.

Make sure to park where other vehicles can go around you, especially at the few spots where you can sort of pull off the road.

Common Potoo and Pacific Screech-Owl on the Cerro Lodge Road

Last year, this pair of choice species entertained a good number of birders. This year, they are back! Actually, they never left but had changed their roosting sites. I can’t really describe exactly where they are but, if you bird there with a local guide, you should be able to see them in the day.

Bird there at night and you could see those as well as other species (Barn, Striped, Mottled, and Black and white Owls have all occurred there!).

Persistence Needed for Uncommon Mangrove Birds

Mangrove species were some of our many target birds. It took some looking but we eventually found some of them. The best were a couple of Mangrove Hummingbirds in the Bajamar mangroves. They weren’t on the main road through them (and the mangroves there didn’t look so great) but were in an area of tall mangroves with lots of arching, intertwined roots. This was on the coastal road that runs next to them.

We also found a few species in the mangroves on the road to Playa Azul. It took some looking but birds like Panama Flycatcher and Northern Scrub Flycatcher eventually showed. Although in Costa Rica, these and a few other species only occur in mangroves, ironically, they aren’t abundant. You’ll probably need to work to see them.

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The Carara area was birdy as always. No matter how much birding you do, there’s always more to see! My only regret is not being able bird each distinctive area at dawn but the solution’s a good one; take more birding trips to the area. Happy birding, I hope to see you here!

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Updates and Highlights from a Morning of Birding at Carara National Park on May 29th

Carara National Park and surroundings is always a good bet for birding in Costa Rica. Whether it happens to be your first time in the neotropics or your 20th, the easy access to a variety of habitats and high quality forests in the national park turn the general area into a birding paradise. However, if I had to make a critique or two, they would be:

1. The place is damn hot (at least for me).

2. The park doesn’t open at 6 am, nor does it offer refreshments (like say an ice bath).

3. The pastures between the rainforests of the park and the Tarcoles mangroves may doom the local Yellow-billed Cotinga population. I don’t say this lightly. Since, the cotingas appear to have decreased over the years and the population is probably fewer than 10 individuals, who knows how long this endangered species will persist in the area.

Solutions to such complaints might be:

1. Do the usual fluid drinking thing (and drink the very refreshing, cold coconut water often sold by a guy at the crocodile bridge).

2. The park hours aren’t going to change anytime soon so just bird outside of the park at sites such as the Bijagual road, around Tarcoles, or near Cerro Lodge.

3. We need to plant more fruiting trees near the Tarcoles mangroves  and make better corridors between the mangroves and the national park.

Ok, so as far as updates and highlights for Carara go…

1. The Universal Trail is finally done. For the past 5 months, the Universal Trail was closed but now it’s finally done, and there is a new booth for park tickets right there at the the main parking lot. Oh, and the trail looks great too with several spots to sit and wait for Great Tinamous and Spectacled Antpittas to walk on by.

The new Universal Trail at Carara.

2. Outside of Carara, the vegetation around Cerro Lodge continues to grow and attract birds, and air conditioning is planned for at least some (maybe all?) rooms later this year!

The view over the cabins at Cerro Lodge.

3. Speaking of Cerro Lodge, Striped Cuckoo was showing well from the restaurant the other day, along with flyby Yellow-naped, White-crowned, and White-fronted Parrots, Black-headed and Gartered Trogons, Turquoise-browed Motmots (very easy there), and other species.

Striped Cuckoo.

4. Inside the park, bird song resounded among the immense trees and dim understory. Although it took a while to actually see some of those birds, the morning song ambiance was priceless. Some of the first birds we saw ended up being species like White-whiskered Puffbird, Buff-throated Foliage-gleaner, and Gray-headed Tanagers at an antswarm! We also got fantastic looks at a Black-faced Antthrush that was walking back and forth and a couple of Bicolored Antbirds.

5. Around the same time, we had amazing, close looks at a Great Tinamou that carefully walked on past and stood in the forest as we took photos.

I was able to digiscope this Great Tinamou in the dim understory because it stood so still for so long but was so close, I could only focus on its weird ratite noggin! I had to restrain myself from petting it.

6. Further up the trail, the next big highlight was finding a small group of Marbled Wood Quail while trying to watch a lek of Stripe-throated Hermits! This was a serious treat because these unobtrusive understory birds are rarely seen at Carara. I found them after hearing the quail scratching in the leaf litter. It was kind of ridiculous trying to digiscope birds in very low light conditions that look like leaf litter and are obscured by vegetation but try I did and some shots sort of came out..

Marbled Wood Quail!

After foraging for a bit, the wood quail got up onto a low branch and roosted together. We could actually watch them through the scope for several minutes.

Three Marbled Wood Quail roosting on a low branch.

A Marbled Wood Quail shows off its massive orange-red eyering.

Leaving the wood quail, we got close looks at a Rufous-tailed Jacamar, had very good looks at a rare Yellow-bellied Tyrannulet, and got onto some nice mixed flock activity before eating lunch at a seaside restaurant (where we also saw a dozen Surfbirds for a new year bird bonus!).

Carara is a pretty good site for Rufous-tailed Jacamar.

It seems like no matter how many times you bird Carara, you are always in for an exciting, birdy time.

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The Carara Christmas Count, Costa Rica

Like most bird counts, Christmas counts included, Dieter Holdt and I started the day so darn early that it was the middle of the night. This strange behavior is fairly typical of birders on count days. Be it a Big Day, Bird Race or Christmas Count, the more gung-ho (read psycho) birders take advantage of the midnight start time to listen for Nightjars, Owls, Rails and maybe disturb some poor sleeping bird with a bright light and excited whispers. In our case, we weren’t even looking for birds; we had to meet other Carara Christmas Counters at 4:30 A.M. Since we both live in the Central Valley, this meant a 2 hour drive down to the Pacific coast. At least night driving in Costa Rica is maybe 1,000 times better than during the day. Although drunk drivers might be a significant factor (and we saw one), traffic is more or less non-existent. This is in extreme contrast to day driving when the roads are clogged with honking cars, motorcycles zipping by and slow, behemoth trucks that reduce your average speed to about 20 miles per hour.

On the night of the count, driving was particularly nice with a full moon lighting up the roadways and painting the jade vegetation silver as we twisted and turned past the towns of Atenas and San Mateo. At one point we actually did look for a bird. This was in Orotina where a resident pair of Black and White Owls amazingly resides in the central plaza. During our plaza drive-by, though, Owls were replaced by a few drunken night people. Continuing on, before we knew it, we had arrived at our destination an hour before the meeting time- on a side note, if you drive at night in Costa Rica, you can probably cut off at least a third of your driving time.

We rested in the car for close to an hour until fellow counters arrived. After meeting up with the two other members of our group and getting our boxed (plastic bagged) lunches, we drove to our morning territory; the river or Vigilancia Trail. This trail/road/rainy-season mud-bath, accesses gallery forest, second growth, an oxbow lake before eventually reaching upland, primary rain forest. The variety of habitats combined with accessibility and ease of walking make it one of the best birding spots in Central America. It is one of those places where the birding seems to always be good and our day was no exception.

Our first species were typical of the pre-dawn lowland rain forest chorus; Pauraque from a nearby clearing, a mournful Collared Forest Forest-Falcon and Woodcreepers trilling and whistling into the dusky air. As we slowly made our way to our first and principal stop on the trail, other species were added to the list one after another, all by their vocalizations; Great and Little Tinamous, Rufous-tailed Jacamar, Pale-billed Woodpeckers double-knocking, Mealy Parrots and Orange-chinned Parakeets overhead, Spectacled Antpitta, Black-faced Anthrush, Chestnut-backed and Dusky Antbirds, Dot-winged Antwren, Black-hooded and Barred Antshrikes, several Flycatchers, Grey-headed Tanagers and so on.

Dieter, Maria and Nestor looking for birds.

Our main stop was the best Christmas tree a birder could ask for;  an immense fig tree in fruit.  Adorned with palatable ornaments of its own device, it was busy with over 20 species of birds.  The umbrella-like crown of the tree was so high up that we found birds by scanning with our binoculars. You could look with bins at almost any part of the tree and pick out at least one bird perched or feeding. Watching this incredible tree was surreal; three Trogon species looked as if they were in a feeding frenzy as they flew back and forth beneath the umbrella-like canopy, Kiskadees called and sallied for figs, even a few Long-tailed Manakins appeared now and then to snatch a fig. The strangest bird of all was a Band-tailed Pigeon, a species typically found at much higher elevations. Although we did not see the Turquoise and Yellow-billed Cotingas we had hoped for, I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two had shown up and we just missed them because the tree was so big.

Looking up into the amazing fig; I am the one styling with boots with shorts.

After a couple of hours at the fig we noticed fewer fruits and fewer birds and so continued on down the trail trying to keep track of the birds we were constantly hearing and seeing. We picked up Ruddy Quail Dove (always a good spot for this terrestrial species), Gray-fronted Dove, flyby Wood Storks and a Great Blue Heron, Blue-throated Goldentail, Purple-crowned Fairy, Tawny-winged Woodcreeper, and so on. Some of the more common species were Plain Xenops, Buff-throated Woodcreeper, Dusky Antbird, Black-hooded Antshrike, Northern Bentbill, Orange-collared Manakin, Long-billed Gnatwren, and several Wren species. Carara is a great example of Wren diversity by the way. We saw 7 species along that trail, most common being Black-bellied, Rufous and White and Riverside.

Eventually we reached the oxbow lake. This was the perfect spot for a mid-morning rest.

We watched  a few crocodiles

and counted various widespread waterbirds including 4 Black-necked Stilts and several Boat-billed Herons that roosted in nearby trees. We also picked up Prothonotary Warbler and Ringed and Green Kingfishers. A bit further on was beautiful upland primary forest. We heard a few Rufous Pihas there and saw more of the same. Being midday, it was pretty quiet in the upland forest. If you are there at dawn, I am sure it is a whole other matter.

At that time, we made our way back up the trail, hanging out at the fig tree to get better looks at Long-tailed Manakin and hope for Cotingas. Although no Cotingas showed, we picked up one of our target birds along the way; Royal Flycatcher. This trail is a very reliable spot for this species.

We munched our bagged lunches of bread, cheese, fruit and crackers and wished we had slept longer the night before even though that would have broken the big day and Christmas count traditions of feeling exhausted most of the time. Since one of our count group forgot his bagged lunch, we drove to the nearby Guacimo soda so he could refuel. This was about 5 minutes from the Tarcol bridge, on the right side of the highway heading towards San Jose. The change in habitats is amazing; as soon as you cross the bridge, you enter into drier habitat which holds many species not found in the humid forests of Carara. The Guacimo had a nice overlook and we picked up a few new birds here.

Guacimo overlook.

From the soda, we continued up the highway towards San Jose taking a right at the next intersection for our afternoon territory. This area is called Sandillal and accesses much drier, grassy fields, and good moist forest before reaching the Tarcol river. We continued to get new species along this road. Best were Keel-billed Toucan and Montezuma Oropendolas (both uncommon birds around Carara) and Gray-headed Kite. We also had excellent Hummingbird activity at flowering Ingas. Dozens of Hummingbirds of 8 species were buzzing around these trees. The most common Hummingbird species on the dry side of the bridge were Steely-vented, Green-breasted Mango, Ruby-throated and Rufous-tailed. Our best Hummingbird species were White-necked Jacobin and Plain-capped Starthroat.

Down at the river we picked up a Snowy Egret and Gray Hawk but not much else so we sped over to the Tarcol river bridge hoping for flyovers of something new.

The Tarcol bridge.

We saw a few Macaws in the distance but very little flying over the bridge itself. Nevertheless, we managed to scope a distant Common Black Hawk, get our Spotted Sandpiper, and our only Cherries Tanagers and Grayish Saltators. By this time, it was 5 PM and we were more than exhausted enough to call it a day. We headed back to our lodging (dormitories in the park) and rested up before driving over to dinner provided by the Crocodile tour. This is another nice thing about some of these Costa Rican Christmas counts; the organizers do an excellent job of not only planning out routes but also getting local businesses involved to the point of providing food and a tee-shirt.

At dinner we caught up with other counters and found out that our team probably got the highest species total with 151 species. This is also the most I have recorded in one day in Costa Rica; a total I hope to soundly top with a Big Day possibly in 2009. Although our Yellow-billed Cotinga never showed at the amazing fruiting fig, another team got one female in the mangroves. The mangrove team also got the best bird; Nashville Warbler! A common species further north, this is a very rare vagrant in Costa Rica. Although the photos weren’t the best, they looked pretty convincing as were their descriptions. I think its no wonder this bird showed up in mangroves since a migrant at the periphery of its range is likely to be a juvenile that ends up using substandard habitat; mangroves being substandard for many Warbler species. I am still waiting for the final total for all teams but expect it to get close to or top 300 species as several shorebirds were recorded and a variety of cloud forest species from higher elevations that fell into the count circle.

After a night of much needed rest, Dieter and I birded the primary forest of Carara. This forest is just fantastic; giant trees that soar above a thin understory making it easy to see understory birds, clear streams, and of course lots of good birding. Over the course of an hour on the trails, some of the better species we saw (and typical of Carara)  were: a few Crested Guans, Scarlet Macaws, White-necked Puffbird, Spectacled Antpitta (possibly the easiest spot to see this species), Long-tailed Woodcreeper (a likely lump with Spot-throated Woodcreeper), Golden-crowned Spadebill, Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher and Rufous Piha.

After excellent forest birding, we drove to Tarcoles in search of wetlands and associated bird species. Along the road into Tarcoles, we had close looks at a pair of Yellow-naped Parrots and eventually found our waterbirds somewhere between Tarcol village and the Crocodile tour. The birds were in the flooded portion of someone’s backyard and this temporary pond must have been filled with aquatic goodies because there were..

at least a dozen White Ibis,

Wood Storks,

Great Egrets,

and Bare-throated Tiger Herons.

Further on, we took a left near the crocodile tour to head towards the beach. This section of road passes through more wetlands and mangroves before reaching the beach. We saw little in the wetlands and mangroves but had several new species on the beach such as hunting Ospreys, Sanderling, Black-bellied Plover, Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls, and many Frigatebirds and Pelicans. There were also a good number of birds perched on sandbars at the mouth of the Tarcol river. Unfortunately, we couldn’t check them out because it was time for us to head back to San Jose and we still wanted to stop in Orotina.

The beach near Tarcoles.

At Orotina, we walked through the plaza checking the trees for the local Black and White Owls. As per usual, the plaza was busy with all sorts of people and as on other occasions, I could not find the Owls until the local ice cream vendor pointed them out. On this day, we only saw one of the Owls and it was roosting in a fairly open tree at the edge of the park. If the ice-cream guy isn’t there, check for white-wash as there was plenty under the owl’s perch on that day.

With Black and White Owl under our belts and 168 other species in just a bit more than  one day of birding, we felt more than satisfied as we drove back up to the White-winged Doves and Tropical Kingbirds of the central valley. As always, I can’t wait to get back to Carara.