villa san ignacio

A Morning of Birding at Villa San Ignacio

I’ve written about Villa San Ignacio before, it’s easy to write about it again. For the visiting birder, this small hotel has more than nice rooms and great service. The place is a quick 15 to 20 minute drive from the airport and, even better, the hotel grounds are birdy habitat in their entirety.

Huge fig trees, mangos, and native “cedars” shade the gardens near the rooms while second growth covers a few short trails that approach a stream. Although you can’t reach the flowing water, you can get close enough to hear it. Bird there in the morning and you’ll also hear a good number of edge and moist forest species.

Today, I guided at Villa San Ignacio in the morning and it went a little something like this:

Five Wrens a Singing

In Costa Rica, wren diversity is up there. Bird any forested area at low or middle elevations and you’ll hear several of this vociferous bunch. Today at Villa San Ignacio, I had the usual five species that whistle from riparian zones and other vegetation in the Central Valley.

Today, Rufous-and-white Wrens were singing the most and, unusually, we had good looks around the volleyball court. Rufous-breasteds also sang but, as per usual, kept to the dense vine tangles. Carolina looking Cabanis’s Wrens sang from the dense second growth while Southern House Wrens (fun to say that!) and played around buildings and Rufous-backed Wrens (also fun) did their babbleresque actions throughout the property.

Fair Hummingbird Action

Today, hummingbirds were alright especially considering the low number of suitable flowers. Porterweed bushes were the main nectar source along with a small number of additional flowering plants. Several Blue-venteds fed and chased each other at the Porterweed, especially around the volleyball court. By the main buildings, another Porterweed patch hosted a Cinnamon, and Rufous-taileds trilled and bounced around the rest of the property.

In the dry season, flowering trees also attract Green-breasted Mango, Blue-throated Goldentail, and Plain-capped Starthroats. Fortunately, a couple of those starthroats were still around; we managed to see one on a high perch at the tail end of the morning.

No Manakins or Ground-Sparrows but a Yellow-billed Cacique

Despite plenty of whistling for manakins, I heard nary a response. Same goes for the ground-sparrows. Usually, I at least hear a White-eared but not today. I’m not sure where the Cabanis’s go either, hopefully just hiding back in the thick stuff.

I figure the manakins moved off to better feeding areas, I figure that was also why we didn’t see any tityras. The birds probably found better fruiting trees elsewhere but, they’ll surely be back. On a positive note, we did hear and see a Yellow-billed Cacique, a bird I rarely if ever see at Villa San Ignacio.

Lineated Woodpecker, Lesson’s Motmots, and other Common Birds

This morning also had a fair array of common edge and Central Valley species. We had nice looks at Hoffmann’s and Lineated Woodpeckers, Lesson’s Motmots, Boat-billed Flys, kiskadees, Blue-gray Tanagers, Chestnut-capped Warblers, Squirrel Cuckoo, saltators, Common Tody-Flys, and others.

We also enjoyed Gray-headed Chachalacas, Streak-headed Woodcreeper, Brown Jays, and Barred Antshrike among others.

High Flying Raptors

Once it warmed up enough, vultures soared overhead and were joined by Gray and Short-tailed Hawks. Those are the usuals at Villa San Ignacio but it pays to keep looking up. On other birding days, I’ve often seen Zone-tailed Hawk and other things can occur, even birds like Double-toothed Kite, Swallow-tailed, Kite and the odd Hook-billed Kite!

It was a fine morning of birding at Villa San Ignacio. In common with so many birding sites in Costa Rica, you never really know what you’ll see. There’s some seasonal variation and forested riparian zones and other green space have various birds wandering in and out of the area. In other words, it’s always good and a great place to start and end your birding time in Costa Rica.

Here’s the eBird list from today and a link to my Costa Rica birding site guide. I hope to see you here!

Great Urban Birding at Villa San Ignacio, Costa Rica

Good birding in Costa Rica doesn’t require hours of bumpy rides and long, hot, triathalon training hikes. While the adventurous birder is welcome to burn calories and sweat buckets, excellent birding in Costa Rica can still be had with much less investment of time and effort. I am reminded of this benefit just about every time I go birding because although I do enjoy exploration that requires long hikes through tropical forest, most of my guiding and birding take place while driving and along very manageable trails. Part of that is because this makes for more feasible, easy guiding but honestly, if you know where and how to look for birds in Costa Rica, you can see a heck of a lot, even quite close to urban areas.

I hear this species from time to time right from the house.

As with birding anywhere, habitat is crucial and that’s why I bring birders to Villa San Ignacio. Most of the grounds feature large old trees (including bird-magnet fruiting figs) and regenerating moist forest that attract a good number of species found in dry and moist tropical forest. It’s a key place to see what much of the Central Valley used to look like and how some areas could eventually look if we just let it grow back.

Situated only 20 minutes from the airport, this hotel also works very well as a place to start and end a birding trip. Since the hotel is also at the edge of urbanization in the Central Valley, good birding can also be had on nearby roads. I was reminded of this during the past couple days of guiding at and near Villa San Ignacio. Some of what I saw and learned:

Productive birding at Villa San Ignacio

As is usually the case when birding in good habitat, the avian activity kept us busy. Red-crowned Ant-tanagers moved through dense second growth accompanied by a pair of Barred Antshrikes, Rufous-capped Warblers, Rufous-breasted Wren and other species. Cocoa Woodcreeper was a surprise and a reminder that Villa is a bit lower than San Jose and thus more biodiverse. Brown Jays screeched from the trees and revealed the presence of a juvenile Gray Hawk which then also began to scream. Back in the dense second growth, we had nice looks at Lesser Greenlet, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet and Streaked Flycatcher but the best was a female Long-tailed Manakin perched on a vine at close range.

I have seen males there on other days.

Plain-capped Starthroat and ground-sparrows

At the edge of the forest, we had excellent views of Plain-capped Starthroat and Blue-vented Hummingbird. On other visits, I have also had Cinnamon Hummingbird and Green-breasted Mango. We also had both ground-sparrows albeit with the briefest of views. The White-eared showed slightly better but the key endemic Cabanis’s Ground-Sparrow only revealed its presence with a few call notes followed by a quick flutter to skulk in thick grass.

Good birding on nearby roads

On roads near Villa, good birding is also possible, the main challenge is finding a place to pull off the road. Although that was generally impossible, we were able to stop on a quiet road that passed through a coffee farm with a scattering of trees. The birding was pretty good and I bet it can result in a lot more than we saw during our 30 minute stop. The quaint calls of Blue-vented Hummingbirds greeted us as we stepped out of the car. Shortly after, a flock of White-crowned Parrots flew into a nearby tree and I was surprised to hear the croaking notes of a Keel-billed Toucan. After a bit of maneuvering, there it was, a beautiful bird with a fancy multi-colored beak and within site of the urbanized valley. Not long after I was even more surprised to hear Fiery-billed Aracaris.

Although this regional endemic is more typical of the rainforests on the southern Pacific slope, small numbers also occur in the southern and western parts of the Central Valley (including Villas San Ignacio). After a bit of waiting, two of this exotic beauty fly into the bare tree that already featured the parrots. Our brief stop was rounded out by hearing the ticking call of another Cabanis’s Ground-Sparrow and watching three Ferruginous-Pygmy-Owls at close range.

Turf farms

Unexciting to all but grass enthusiasts and birders hell bent on seeing grasspipers, the latter bit is why I was excited to learn about the presence of these farms. I need to be checking them soon, hopefully with my partner because Upland and Buff-breasteds will be flying back this way, some likely already are. There weren’t any sandpipers visible the other day but it was still good to know where we can look for them.

Birding in Costa Rica is best in places with the most complex, developed habitats (large areas of intact primary forest) but some urban areas can still host much more than you think. Villa San Ignacio is one of those places, contact me at information@birdingcraft.com to learn more about birding and staying at this gem of site.