Costa Rica Birding Trip March 2016 Steve Johnson & Lynn Rafferty

Transcription

1 Costa Rica Birding Trip March 2016 Steve Johnson & Lynn Rafferty This report is intended to help birders and other nature lovers plan their own trips to Costa Rica. Our 12-day trip was focused on birds, but we enjoyed many other aspects of nature as well. We planned our own trip, made our own reservations, drove our own rental car, and hired professional guides for one full day and several shorter walks, in addition to short introductory tours included with two of our accommodations. Birding destinations At, besides getting good birds at all of the trails at (two by the HQ, and one along the river), we also found the waterfall road productive. This is the back road past Villa Lapas, basically following the south edge of the park uphill (and inland). You may have read that the Quebrada Gonzales trails, at Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo, are really good in the early morning. And I suppose they probably are. What I wish I had also read in advance, is that these trails are REALLY quiet later in the morning. We found 5 species 7 total birds, in fact in 2.5 hours on the best trail there, during a late morning in beautiful March weather. Lesson learned: bird early in the morning, and plan to spend the middle part of the day driving, catching up your ebird list, viewing hummingbird feeders, napping, or sipping a cool drink. This is a good guideline anywhere but more pronouncedly so I think, at Quebrada Gonzales. Two very high points of our trip were driving en-route stops at feeders: El Tapir, the former butterfly garden, adjacent to PN Braulio Carrillo; and Café Colibri, the marvelous roadside café in Cinchona, along route 126 between Vara Blanca and San Miguel. There are a couple of other imitation caféʼs along there, closer to the big La Paz Waterfall attraction, but donʼt let them distract you. Studying Google Maps carefully, I think Café Colibri is at , , but Iʼm not sure. The local people there are the real thing a simple wood-burning stove, fresh homemade, very good food and coffee, etc. and an amazingly rich variety of birds at their feeders and gardens. We enjoyed 2-1/2 hours at Café Colibri and watched 3-4 tour groups come and go, none of whom saw all the birds we did. El Tapir is well worth an hour at least, too. Its hummers and others showed well for us. Lodging We made our lodging reservations the first week of July, for this March vacation. That was too late, to get into my 1st and 2nd choice eco-lodges, at one of the destinations. The 3rd choice lodge luckily turned out to be wonderful; this limited choice of available lodgings put us into a spectacular and comfortable lodge, paying much less than we would have at #1 or #2. Even granted that March is the peak month, there is still a lesson here book your ecoaccommodations VERY long in advance. We learned years ago that we are much happier staying a minimum of 3 nights at each stop. This reduces time spent packing, driving, waiting to check in, and unpacking. It also means we get to really know the wildlife and rhythms of each place much better than if we only had a single full day there. On many of our trails, it was equally fun to see some of the same birds as the day before, and begin to know them, as it was to find completely new ones we would have missed if we only had one full day there. On this trip we stayed 4 nights, 3 nights, and 4 nights, at each of our lodgings, and that was nearly perfect for us. The only regret was that we placed the most comfortable place in the middle, and ended the vacation with 4 nights in a lowland location with no A/C. Try to end the trip at the most comfortable place, not at the least comfortable!! We stayed at, birding Parque Nacionale Carara and vicinity; Paraiso del Quetzales, birding that area up to Cerro de la Muerte; and La Selva Biological Station, birding the preserve at La Selva. For our last night, just for convenience to the airport, we also stayed at Hotel Buena

2 Vista. We recommend all 4, but be warned, there is no air conditioning anywhere at La Selva (we did not wish to spend hours in the gift shop). It was the best lodging for all-around natureappreciation, and we did pay for it in sweat. CL & PQ both include a very good full breakfast with lodging, and LS provides 3 good meals every day youʼre there. (Although a hot lunch is a mixed blessing at LS!) Theyʼre also good about packaging your breakfast and/or lunch to take away to go with your birding plans for the day, if you notify them in advance. I have seen trip reports that also complain about the heat at. In fact, we had one of the cabins facing the afternoon sun. But we found that the room became quite comfortable, just a few minutes after we turned on the A/C each afternoon. The heat was similar at La Selva, but much harder to deal with because there was no A/C. Both and Paraiso del Quetzales have extensive, well-planted grounds with great birding around the cabins. PQ additionally has several forest trails, 1-2 km each. There appears to be some sort of rivalry or friction going on between PQ and its sister lodge Mirador Quetzales, and itʼs important to verify with the management which trail you plan to walk. This is also important because they are being careful to limit the disturbance of nesting Quetzals on the trails. The very hilly terrain at PQ, at elevation 9,000 feet (even to get from your cabin, to the reception for meals etc.) could be a challenge for some. We viewed it as a healthy 10-minute refresher walk, several times a day, among beautiful, birdy gardens. Rental cars As Iʼve read in othersʼ reports, we too suffered a miserable two hours at the rental car office, fighting to deal with very large and unexpected extra charges. My lesson from that is, make sure you fully understand all charges ahead of time. Call them in advance, and demand to know (and understand) every item they will charge you with. In our case, the two nasty surprises were mandatory 3rd-party liability insurance, and an extra driver charge (which Hertz has never charged me for domestic rentals). Bad on me for not investigating all of this ahead of time. And, bad on Hertz for not clearly notifying me when I made this reservation, about their very different policies when renting a car internationally. Driving and navigation You canʼt beat a good GPS loaded with local maps for the country you are driving in. But, here is a good back-up, in case you want one. We relied on this in lieu of a GPS, and it works OK but only if one person in your party is willing to turn himself into a full-time GPS device. In our case there were several times when conversation and/or bird watching led to our human device very nearly missing an upcoming turn. Our method (again, only suggesting this as a back-up) was this. Google Maps has a wonderful feature called OK maps. Before our trip, I used this feature to download map data for our entire route. During the trip, I had a working map on my ipad showing our current location and surrounding map details, with no cell connection at all. To navigate I used that map in the ipad, plus previously printed driving directions, previously listed latitude/longitude coordinates at key waypoints, and a free latitude/longitude app, and we managed the entire 407-mile trip, including 4 driving days (to our four lodgings) with exactly zero wrong turns. On a related topic, this was I think at least the 3rd time Verizon assured us we would have good phone coverage in-country for an international trip (for a one-month additional charge), which turned out to be pretty spotty. I was very glad I had the pre-loaded map data. Bugs Maybe itʼs because this was late in the dry season, but I came away from 12 days in Costa Rica without a single mosquito or tick or chigger bite. Nothing. We used permethrintreated pants and socks, but most days I wore a T-shirt with no bug spray (well, actually changed twice a day, so it was 2 T-shirts).

3 Guides Like the lodgings, good birding guides are booked well in advance. We were lucky to get an excellent guide, Pat OʼDonnell, for our first full day. I cannot recommend Pat enough. He was very easy to get along with, just a nice, nice guy; and he was incredibly proficient at finding, identifying, and helping us see and appreciate birds and other natural wonders. He found and showed us 140 species of birds during a very comfortable full day of birding. Finally, he takes the conservation and future of Costa Rica very seriously. See his extensive blogs about CR at We did not get around to reserving independent full-day guides for our other days in time, but I do recommend using guides for at least some of the days you do see so much more that way. As other reports have mentioned, we found Lenin Duarte to be an excellent guide at La Selva OTS. He is at lenincostarica (at) gmail.com. At each lodge, we asked them to provide a private guide for a 2- or 4-hour session (e.g. Lenin), and we found each one well worth the extra money. I think there is substantial competition in CR for the job of eco-guide, and it showed in these hardworking and talented guides. Books, Resources Following the standard advice, I started with Lawsonʼs book, A Bird-Finding Guide to Costa Rica. However I also learned of a newer book called, How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica by Pat OʼDonnell. It is an ebook, much newer (2014 instead of 2008), and has many more locations (birding spots). It is also better organized, grouping the locations by habitat zone and geographical proximity, rather than just habitat zone as in Lawsonʼs book. OʼDonnellʼs book also includes a section (absent in Lawsonʼs) describing how to find and identify specific families raptors, woodcreepers, euphonias, etc. Finally, OʼDonnellʼs book is much more recent, whereas Lawsonʼs is outdated in many places. In summary I have studied both books thoroughly, and in my opinion the one to use is How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica. The best field guide is still Garrigues, The Birds of Costa Rica. The evening tally rallies at every lodge were a wash of khaki (clothing), and sky blue-and-white (the book cover). For a fascinating and very readable description of the natural history of tropical birds, I heartily add my recommendation to many others, to read Steven Hiltyʼs book, Birds of Tropical America. I have only been able to locate one app for birding Costa Rica, by Birding Field Guides, and I have a mixed review. Good things: 1) It has a good 700 to 900 species, very complete. 2) Most species have a voice recording, and most of those are fairly good quality. 3) Each species has a range map, description notes, and habitat notes. 4) I never got into it, but the app also has ability to collect your own notes on your sightings, and (maybe) share or upload them (I think, not sure). Bad things: 1) It is a photographic app, and if youʼre a serious birder, you know how limiting a photographic field guide is, compared to a painted field guide (by a good artist like Peterson or Sibley). 2) The interface is a bit awkward; when you want to jump back and forth between 2 or 3 species to compare them, you have to back out or reset and search again, each time you switch species. The app cleverly comes with built-in lists of similar species, to avoid this problem; but in most cases the list is too short, and another species I really need to compare with, is excluded. So itʼs back to the full index of 700+ species, to go look at the other (comparison) species. 3) The listed bird sizes given are practically useless, because all of the birds are sorted into only 4-5 size categories. To exaggerate a bit, 6-inch birds like sparrows are in the same size category as 3-inch birds like Volcano Hummingbird. Itʼs not much help to know that a given raptor is Large: 16 to 24 inches especially when you notice that most of the hawks in the app all have this exact same size. Bottom line: I relied heavily on Richard Garriguesʼ book, the standard field guide I saw in everyoneʼs hands. This app (by Birding Field Guides) was very useful to me for one thing, the recorded vocalizations. It was worth the money to me, just for that feature but youʼll definitely want a copy of Garrigues for most species identifications.

4 Bird results 297 total species, including 181 life birds. Many highlights including Agami Heron, White-fronted Nunbird, and Snowy Cotinga; Silver-fronted Tapaculo and Wrenthrush (saw and heard both); 3 kinds of Manakins, 7 kinds of Trogons, 26 kinds of Hummingbird, 4 night birds (owls and nightjars), 34 varieties of flycatcher, and 18 kinds of diurnal raptor. Our day with Pat OʼDonnell as a full-day guide netted us 140 species. Several of the specials e.g. Tapaculo and Wrenthrush, we definitely would never have seen without the expert guides provided by the lodges. Other cool nature things Spider, Howler, and Capuchin Monkeys; Two-toed Sloth, Coatis, Agoutis, peccaries; whiptail, basilisk, and iguana lizards, crocodiles, and caiman; beautiful bullfrogs; a handful (think about it) of poison dart frogs; fer-de-lance (snake on our night hike); glowing click beetle and fireflies, zipper spider, millipede and centipedes; army ant swarms, termite nests and trails, and countless leaf-cutter ant trails and mounds; white tent bats and lesser white-lined bats. Nesting and/or courtship behavior for many of the birds we saw there. It was also exciting for a life-long astronomy enthusiast from the northern temperate zone, to see Polaris just 9 degrees above the north horizon; and to see the evening crescent moon facing down and to the left (the wrong way!!). Photo album here: stevejohnson2 (at) verizon (dot) net Below is our species list. Great Tinamou Muscovy Duck Gray-headed Chachalaca Crested Guan Black Guan Great Currasow Wood Stork Magnificent Frigatebird Anhinga Brown Pelican Bare-throated Tiger-Heron Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Little Blue Heron Cattle Egret Agami Heron White Ibis Green Ibis Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Osprey White-tailed Kite Swallow-tailed Kite Double-toothed Kite Mississippi Kite Crane Hawk Common Black Hawk Roadside Hawk White Hawk Gray Hawk Broad-winged Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Purple Gallinule Double-striped Thick-knee Whimbrel &. Came upon these birds as we walked through forest slowly and quietly, and were able to approach quite closely. Along the "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas, foraging in a stream (first time our guide had ever seen one there), perched alongside the roads &, in fields

5 Whimbrel Spotted Sandpiper Willet Laughing Gull Royal Tern Rock Pigeon Pale-vented Pigeon Red-billed Pigeon Band-tailed Pigeon Ruddy Pigeon Short-billed Pigeon Inca Dove Common Ground-Dove Ruddy Ground-Dove White-tipped Dove White-winged Dove Groove-billed Ani Striped Cuckoo Squirrel Cuckoo Vermiculated Screech-Owl Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl Common Pauraque Dusky Nightjar White-collared Swift Gray-rumped Swift White-necked Jacobin Band-tailed Barbthroat Long-billed Hermit Stripe-throated Hermit Lesser Violetear Green-breasted Mango Green Thorntail Black-crested Coquette Green-crowned Brilliant Magnificent Hummingbird Fiery-throated Hummingbird White-bellied Mountain-gem Ruby-throated Hummingbird Volcano Hummingbird Violet-headed Hummingbird Scaly-breasted Hummingbird Violet Sabrewing Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer Crowned Woodnymph Coppery-headed Emerald Snowcap Blue-chested Hummingbird Charming Hummingbird Rufous-tailed Hummingbird Cinnamon Hummingbird Blue-throated Goldentail Resplendent Quetzal Slaty-tailed Trogon Black-headed Trogon Baird's Trogon Gartered Trogon Black-throated Trogon Collared Trogon Rufous Motmot Broad-billed Motmot Turquoise-browed Motmot Green Kingfisher American Pygmy Kingfisher White-necked Puffbird Pied Puffbird White-whiskered Puffbird White-fronted Nunbird Rufous-tailed Jacamar wherever & Hotel Buena Vista throughout; only heard, unseen ; roads and edges & ; fields & low perches & & & Hotel Buena Vista El Tapir & ; at heliconia flowers & El Tapir & El Tapir El Tapir & & ; at heliconia El Tapir El Tapir ; guides know where to find them & & & & & & "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas,, & ; high perches ; high perch ; quietly perched 10m above the ground on deep trail well W of the river &

6 Rufous-tailed Jacamar Collared Aracari Fiery-billed Aracari Yellow-throated Toucan Keel-billed Toucan Olivaceous Piculet Black-cheeked Woodpecker Hoffmann's Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Rufous-winged Woodpecker Chestnut-colored Woodpecker Lineated Woodpecker Pale-billed Woodpecker Crested Caracara Yellow-headed Caracara Laughing Falcon Peregrine Falcon Orange-chinned Parakeet Brown-hooded Parrot White-crowned Parrot Red-lored Parrot Yellow-naped Parrot White-fronted Parrot Olive-throated Parakeet Orange-fronted Parakeet Great Green Macaw Scarlet Macaw Barred Antshrike Black-hooded Antshrike Russet Antshrike Dot-winged Antwren Dusky Antbird Chestnut-backed Antbird Bicolored Antbird Silvery-fronted Tapaculo Black-faced Antthrush Tawny-winged Woodcreeper Plain-brown Woodcreeper Wedge-billed Woodcreeper Northern Barred-Woodcreeper Cocoa Woodcreeper Streak-headed Woodcreeper Plain Xenops Buff-throated Foliage-gleaner Ruddy Treerunner Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet Yellow-bellied Elaenia Mountain Elaenia Ochre-bellied Flycatcher Paltry Tyrannulet Northern Scrub-Flycatcher Slate-headed Tody-Flycatcher Common Tody-Flycatcher Eye-ringed Flatbill Yellow-olive Flycatcher Golden-crowned Spadebill Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher Tufted Flycatcher Ochraceous Pewee Eastern Wood-Pewee Tropical Pewee Black-capped Flycatcher Long-tailed Tyrant Bright-rumped Attila Dusky-capped Flycatcher Nutting's Flycatcher Great Crested Flycatcher & & & & & Hotel Buena Vista & & & ; several brief fly-bys & ; several brief fly-bys & ; our guide was absolutely essential &,, &, PN Braulio Carrillo, & "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas & ; nest just 2m above the ground, open tree in yard & & & ; high perches, flycatching

7 Great Crested Flycatcher Brown-crested Flycatcher Great Kiskadee Boat-billed Flycatcher Social Flycatcher Gray-capped Flycatcher White-ringed Flycatcher Streaked Flycatcher Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher Piratic Flycatcher Tropical Kingbird Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Snowy Cotinga Blue-crowned Manakin White-collared Manakin Red-capped Manakin Masked Tityra Cinnamon Becard Rose-throated Becard Rufous-browed Peppershrike Green Shrike-Vireo Tawny-crowned Greenlet Lesser Greenlet Mangrove Vireo Blue-headed Vireo Yellow-green Vireo White-throated Magpie-Jay Brown Jay Blue-and-white Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Gray-breasted Martin Mangrove Swallow Barn Swallow House Wren Timberline Wren Band-backed Wren Rufous-naped Wren Rufous-breasted Wren Black-throated Wren Stripe-breasted Wren Riverside Wren White-breasted Wood-Wren Gray-breasted Wood-Wren Long-billed Gnatwren White-lored Gnatcatcher Tropical Gnatcatcher Black-faced Solitaire Black-billed Nightingale-Thrush Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush Swainson's Thrush Wood Thrush Sooty Thrush Mountain Thrush Clay-colored Thrush Black-and-yellow Silky-flycatcher Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher Ovenbird Louisiana Waterthrush Northern Waterthrush Golden-winged Warbler Black-and-white Warbler Flame-throated Warbler Tennessee Warbler Gray-crowned Yellowthroat American Redstart Tropical Parula Yellow Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler,, & & & "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas & "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas ; ask guides when & where to look for it "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas, & El Tapir & & ; no rose color in Costa Rica race!! PN Tapanti, SW portion near Pan-Amer hwy; found & ID-ed first by hearing it; then saw it ; perched briefly in mid-canopy & ; in fields & Hotel Buena Vista & Parque Bosques de Fraijanes & & Hotel Buena Vista Cerro de la Muerte & PN Braulio Carrillo Cerro de la Muerte,, & ; found by hearing it first ; seen perched during guided night walk ; often seen near Long-Tailed ; often seen near Black-and-yellow & "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas & "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas, & Hotel Buena Vista &,, & "waterfall road"

8 Chestnut-sided Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler Black-cheeked Warbler Buff-rumped Warbler Wilson's Warbler Slate-throated Redstart Collared Redstart Wrenthrush Gray-headed Tanager White-shouldered Tanager Tawny-crested Tanager Passerini's Tanager Cherrie's Tanager Blue-gray Tanager Palm Tanager Golden-hooded Tanager Bay-headed Tanager Silver-throated Tanager Shining Honeycreeper Red-legged Honeycreeper Green Honeycreeper Slaty Flowerpiercer Blue-black Grassquit Variable Seedeater White-collared Seedeater Bananaquit Dusky-faced Tanager Buff-throated Saltator Grayish Saltator Sooty-capped Chlorospingus Common Chlorospingus Stripe-headed Sparrow Olive Sparrow Orange-billed Sparrow Volcano Junco Rufous-collared Sparrow Large-footed Finch Yellow-thighed Finch Summer Tanager Flame-colored Tanager Red-throated Ant-Tanager Black-faced Grosbeak Rose-breasted Grosbeak Blue-black Grosbeak Blue Grosbeak Melodious Blackbird Great-tailed Grackle Shiny Cowbird Bronzed Cowbird Black-cowled Oriole Streak-backed Oriole Baltimore Oriole Chestnut-headed Oropendola Montezuma Oropendola Scrub Euphonia Yellow-crowned Euphonia Yellow-throated Euphonia Olive-backed Euphonia Tawny-capped Euphonia Golden-browed Chlorophonia & ; at ant swarm and at stream ; our guide was absolutely essential PN Braulio Carrillo El Tapir,, & & "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas, "waterfall road", &,, & & ; flits between low shrubs like a wren,, & "waterfall road" El Tapir &,, & & area & area & PN Tapanti, SW portion near Pan-Amer hwy; & Hotel Buena Vista PN Braulio Carrillo & "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas feeders PN Braulio Carrillo & "waterfall road" (E) from Villa Lapas, & PN Braulio Carrillo ; attracted w/ recording