The tour group
Roseate Spoonbill
White-necked Puffbird
Scrub Euphonia
Southern Lapwing
Wood Stork
Double-striped Thick-knee
Green-breasted Mango
Brown Pelicans, Royal and Elegant Terns and Laughing Gulls.
Canivet’s Emerald
Category Archives: Costa Rica 2019
La Ensenada Wildlife Refuge – Northern Lowlands – Gulf of Nicoya
Our final destination was the La Ensenada Wildlife Refuge and my first impression was that it was the hottest place we had visited. Whilst here we had a boat trip out to the mangroves early in the morning where we saw Mangrove Hummingbird, Panama Flycatcher, Mangrove Warbler (Yellow Warbler), Boat-billed Heron and many other birds. We also had a tractor ride to the salt pans, a lake and hill with a great view over the area.
Magnificent Frigatebird
Pacific Screech-Owl
Crested Caracara
White-throated Magpie-Jay. Â Â These birds would often join us in the lodge at meal times hoping for scraps
Spot-breasted Oriole
Streak-backed Oriole
Streaked Flycatcher
Eastern Meadowlark
Black-headed Trogon
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Carara National Park
We stopped at Carara National Park for a few hours on our way to our final destination and saw quite a few new birds.
Scarlet Macaw
Gray-headed Tanager
Black-hooded Antshrike
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Gartered Trogon
White-whiskered Puffbird
Dot-winged Antwren (female)
Crested Guan
Macaw Lodge cont…
The sounds and sights from Macaw Lodge early morning.
White-throated Rail
Golden-Naped Woodpecker
Rufous Piha
Northern Jacana
Macaw Lodge – Costa Rica 2019
We left the Highlands and travelled to Macaw Lodge during day 9 of the trip. It was a long journey but broken up with a couple of stops as usual which allowed us to see some new birds enroute such as Red-headed Barbet and Roadside Hawk. We arrived at Macaw Lodge in the dark and the noise of the jungle at night was amazing.
Sounds in the Jungle
Red-headed Barbet & Silver-throated Tanager
Green-crowned Brilliant
Slate-throated Redstart
Roadside Hawk
Muscovy Duck
White-crested Coquette
King Vulture
Charming Hummingbird
Baird’s Trogon
The Highlands – Costa Rica 2019 cont…
Volcano Junco
Black-cheeked Warbler
Mountain Thrush
Sooty-capped Chlorospingus
Resplendent Quetzal
Black Guan
Large-footed Finch
Bronzed Cowbird
Sooty Thrush
White-throated Mountain-gem
Swallow-tailed Kites
The Highlands – Costa Rica 2019
Our next destination was the Savegre Valley in the Talamanca Mountain Range which is about 7000 feet above sea level and the home of the Resplendent Quetzal a bird that is the star turn for visitors. Unfortunately I did not manage to get a very good picture of the spectacular male, maybe a reason to come back again! We also visited The high Paramo which is the highest point of the Pan-American Highway at over 11000 feet above sea level, there were great views from here. We also had two visits to the excellent restaurant Paraiso Quetzal where the bird feeders attract a great variety of birds. We had also stopped on the journey to this destination at our guide Lalo’s boss’s house where we saw Buff-fronted Quail-Dove.
Resplendent Quetzal (female)
Resplendent Quetzal (male)
Quetzal mania!
Buff-fronted Quail-Dove
Flame-coloured Tanager
Fiery-throated Hummingbird
Volcano Hummingbird
Hairy Woodpecker
Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher
Collared Redstart
Slaty Flowerpiercer
Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush
Yellow-bellied Siskin
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Caribbean Foothills
Whilst staying at Selva Verde we went out on a trip to the Caribbean Foothills where we had an interesting walk down a valley to a river seeing many birds on the way. We then went to a cafe with bird feeders and a great view of the San Fernando Waterfall, there were great birds here including Emerald Toucanets, Prong-billed Barbets and Violet Sabrewing and Coppery-headed Emerald hummingbirds. We then visited stakeouts for Spectacled Owl and Great Potoo. Our last visit of the day was to someones house who had a small nature reserve in his garden where we saw Green Ibis, Gray-cowled Wood-rail and a Three-toed Sloth with a baby.
Violet Sabrewing
Prong-billed Barbet
Emerald Toucanet
Spectacled Owl
Grey-cowled Wood-rail
Green Ibis
Great Potoo
Fasciated Tiger-Heron
Selva Verde Reserve – Caribbean Lowlands
We spent part of our second day travelling to the Selva Verde Reserve in the Caribbean Lowlands. We saw a few birds on the way such as White Hawk, Black-faced Grosbeak and several species of hummingbirds on one of our stops on the way. We stayed at this reserve for four nights. The bird table at the reserve was always popular with birds and photographers. The Sarapiqui river was right next to the selva Verde Lodge and a variety of birds could be seen along it and from a boat trip down river.
Black-faced Grosbeak
Groove-billed Ani
Streak-headed Woodcreeper
Barred Antshrike
Summer Tanager & Baltimore Oriole
Green Honeycreeper
Male and female Green Honeycreepers
Wood Thrush
Black-cowled Oriole
Crimson-collared Tanager
Red Throated Ant-Tanager
Rufous Motmot
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Blue-black Grosbeak
Costa Rica 2019
A great trip to Costa Rica with my brother from 23/2/2019 – 10/3/2019. We were on a trip arranged by Motmot Travel. It was a small group tour with a guide and driver. Our first and last destination was the Bougainvillea Hotel which is about 20 minutes away from San Jose airport. We had a three hour delay at Gatwick and it took about 3 hours to get through customs in Costa Rica so it was dark when we arrived at the hotel. It would be  the next morning before we could explore the fantastic garden at the hotel. Sunrise is about 5.30am and sunset at 5.30pm every day in Costa Rica as it is so close to the equator. We were up and drinking coffee at 5.15am awaiting sunrise – this was to be the same each day from now on – it may have seemed early to us but it is just the start of the day in Costa Rica. The garden has a nice selection of birds.
Lesson’s Motmot
Blue-grey Tanager
White-eared Ground-sparrow
Inca Dove
White-winged Dove
Hoffman’s Woodpecker
