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 Hmmingbird, some 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, 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 with 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 Violet-ears, 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-elevations foothills. Our primary reason for staying in this part of Costa Rica was to make a pilgrimage to Los Cusingos, long the home to the 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.
From there, we moved down to the steamy Pacific lowlands, staying three nights at the remote Esquinas Rainforest Lodge.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/330478
Megan