January 23-February 1, 2025 with Megan Edwards Crewe & Sam Wilson & local guide Vernon Campos
Costa Rica is a small country -- smaller than most American states. But thanks to a wealth of habitats, elevations ranging from sea level to more than 11,000 feet, and a strong conservation ethos, it punches well above its weight in the biodiversity department. Its totals include nearly 950 species of birds, including a number found only in Costa Rica, or only in Costa Rica and the western edge of neighboring Panama (the so-called Chiriqui endemics). Our two-part "Edges" tour focuses on some of the species restricted to the border areas of the country; this part heads south, spending much of its time near the Panamanian border. And what fun we had exploring this less-visited part of the country!
We started our adventure with some late afternoon birding on the lovely grounds of the Hotel Bougainvillea, where the highlight was a pair of Mottled Owls snuggled together in a big stand of bamboo. Another outing before breakfast added a perched Blue-vented Hummingbird, multiple screeching flocks of Crimson-fronted Parakeets, and a confiding White-eared Ground-Sparrow scrabbling around under a hedge. Then we were off south, climbing up the twisty spine of the Talamanca Mountains along the famous Pan American Highway. Our first stop, in the tiny farming community of Esperanza, yielded several handsome pairs of Long-tailed Silky-Flycatchers, a couple of tree-climbing Spot-crowned Woodcreepers, a tiny Ochraceous Wren, two Yellow-thighed Brushfinches displaying their namesake puffy yellow thighs, a surprise Ochraceous Pewee, and (after some huffing and puffing on our part) the stars of the show -- a pair of Resplendent Quetzals, which glittered like jewels among the greenery. Then we were off to Paraiso Quetzal for lunch and some time at their hummingbird feeders. While fog swirled below us (rendering much of the landscape invisible), we enjoyed a veritable blizzard of hummingbirds: a constant buzzy mix of Fiery-throated, Talamanca, and Volcano hummingbirds, White-throated Mountain-gems and Lesser Violetears, plus several Slaty Flowerpiercers and an arm’s length Mountain Thrush. Unfortunately, the chilly fog rendered our stop at Cerro de la Muerte a complete washout, with nary a sniff of any of the high-elevation species we’d hoped for. As we wound our way back down to the middle elevations, we stopped in San Isidro de El General to search for another specialty bird: the spectacular Turquoise Cotinga. Vernon's careful scanning turned up a somewhat distant male that we all enjoyed in the scopes, and a constant parade of more widespread species kept us entertained while we waited our turns.
Our home for the next two nights was the lovely Talamanca Reserve, a collection of cabins scattered through a private nature reserve in the middle-elevation foothills. Our primary reason for staying in this part of Costa Rica is to make a pilgrimage to Los Cusingos, long the home to legendary tropical ornithologist Alexander Skutch, who co-wrote the first field guide to Costa Rica, as well as scores of papers about the natural history of bird various species. His former farm is now a reserve, and we spent a morning exploring some of the trails there.
We soon discovered that the grounds of the lodge were a wonderful place to bird as well! While we waited for breakfast each morning, a Northern Emerald-Toucanet and tanagers of every hue swarmed over bananas laid out for them, while Tennessee Warblers and Brown Violetears flitted among the flowery vines and side-by-side Lesson's Motmot swung their pendulum tails from a branch over the wall. Red-faced Spinetails crept along mossy branches, and Spot-crowned and Thick-billed euphonias allowed easy comparisons as they munched on fruit together. One afternoon, we got a lift up to the lodge's upper gardens and found new species waiting for us. An aptly named Snowy-bellied Hummingbird returned again and again to the same perch, while a male White-crested Coquette patiently worked its way through virtually every little flower in a sizable vervain hedge. Swallow-tailed Kites banked gracefully overhead. A pair of Elegant Euphonias rested among the twigs at the top of a leafless tree. Two Rufous-breasted Wrens twitched through a big bamboo stand, and Sam and Suzi, who tackled the steep climb back up the hill the next morning, were rewarded with a pair of Blue Seedeaters -- a nomadic species that isn't really reliable anywhere -- nibbling bamboo seeds in that same stand. The surrounding road system also proved productive, with a trio of Gray-headed Tanagers, a fluting Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush and a snoozing Mexican Hairy Porcupine among our finds there.
From there, we moved down to the steamy Pacific lowlands, staying three nights at the remote Esquinas Rainforest Lodge.
After a VERY early departure, some of the group spent the morning at the Rincon Bridge, near where the Rio Rincon empties into the Golpho Dulce on the Osa Peninsula. This is a justly famous spot in Costa Rican birding circles and is perhaps the best location in the country for the scarce and declining Yellow-billed Cotinga. We had a lovely early morning there, enjoying flyovers from a number of different parrot species, including seven impressively large -- and impressively hued -- Scarlet Macaws. We picked up some new raptors, including Doubled-toothed Kite and a Common Black Hawk surveying the riparian area. And the Yellow-billed Cotingas did not disappoint, with both exciting flyovers and satisfying scope views of feeding birds. Vernon found another perched Turquoise Cotinga as well, a bit closer than the one we'd had in San Isidro. We finished the morning at Playa Colibri: appropriately named, as we saw our second target for the morning there -- a cooperative Mangrove Hummingbird.
Those who stayed behind (and got a little more sleep) spent the morning birding the grounds and venturing down the entrance road again.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/330478
Megan