January 31-February 9, 2025 with Megan Edwards Crewe & Sam Wilson and Vernon Campos
A delightful Part II of Birding the Edges began just north of San Jose with a few farewells from those departing, greetings to new arrivals, and a stopover for those continuing on further north with us. Though our first full day of birding started with some heavy rain we had a mostly sparkling and sunny week ahead of us. We enjoyed a sheltered field breakfast that morning while admiring the resilience of birds that also must go about their day finding food in the driving wind and rain. Cinnamon-bellied and Buff-throated Saltator showed well while we ate local pastries, with a Mountain Elaenia and a pair of Golden-browed Chlorophonias giving us a good show, plucking ripe fruit from an aguacate tree. We abandoned our plans to go up the Poas volcano due to the storm, but found a highland (and quite sheltered) option rich with birds at Soda Cinchona.
At the soda (a mountain cafe) we enjoyed hot chocolate and tea while tallying five species of hummingbirds, both species of barbet, Northern Emerald-Toucanet, and five species of tanager. Another bonus was getting decent looks at the very cryptic Buff-fronted Quail-dove. The rain also gave us a welcome respite, during our lunchtime visit to La Paz Waterfall Gardens. This can be a busy location for tourism but the property is large, scenic, and quite good for birding. Hummingbirds are a big feature here. We saw ten species including the highly prized Green-fronted Lancebill, White-bellied and Purple-throated Mountain-gems, and the endemic Coppery-headed Emerald. Also seen was a soaring Ornate Hawk-Eagle, Spotted Barbtail, Dark Pewee, Costa Rican Warbler, Slaty-backed Nightingale-thrush, Slaty Flowerpiercer, and Sooty-faced Finch.
We departed the waterfall gardens and went down a few thousand feet, and as often happens serendipitously in Costa Rica, we had some fun wildlife sightings at a gas station. While chatting up some women working the pumps, they let us know about a sloth that was hanging out in a tree over the parking lot. Costa Rica’s wildlife protections clearly are working well even for urban wildlife, as we got close views of a three-toed sloth scratching his armpits and enjoying the sunshine. The evening was spent at Bosque de Paz, a middle elevation private reserve hosted by some delightful Costa Rican folks. We enjoyed watching Paca (an interesting spotted large rodent) on the property during dinner. We spent the next day and a half on the property finding a variety of great birds. A Black Guan perched up in a tree next to the cabins on property each morning, Long-tailed Silky-flycatchers called from tree tops, and Spangle-cheeked Tanagers alit in the fruiting trees. The first morning one participant even spotted a very close preening Ornate Hawk-eagle within the woodland. We enjoyed extended views of this spectacular raptor. White-throated Spadebill, two Brushfinch species, Black-faced Solitaires, Flame-throated Warblers, and Eye-ringed Flatbill were some other great highlights.
The next day we headed north for the Nicaraguan border to the town of Los Chiles. The Medio Queso marsh was our destination for the afternoon, part of a larger network of wetlands in association with Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River system. This area was once earmarked by the US government as the preferred location for a trans-continental canal. The stubborn French builder of the Suez, Ferdinand de Lesseps, selected the more difficult engineering site of the Panamanian Isthmus, forever altering Central American history. Fortunately, the complex wetland hydrology in this interesting ecosystem remained relatively intact. A variety of wetland birds greeted us soon after we launched, included a pair of Nicaraguan Grackles, a regional specialty. Northern Jacanas, Purple Gallinules, and Anhingas were in abundance and notably, we managed to spot three Yellow-breasted Crakes! As the sun got lower, a Pinnated Bittern made a close flyby and a variety of egrets and herons went to roost. Three kingfisher species, a few Canebrake Wrens, and singing Gray-crowned Yellowthroats made for a nice afternoon.
The lodge at Caño Negro gave us very close access to the nominal wildlife refuge where we explored by boat both the next morning and afternoon. Some highlights of our small boat river trips included Roseate Spoonbill, Boat-billed Heron, American Pygmy Kingfisher, Smoky-brown Woodpecker, Olive-throated Parakeets, White-ringed Flycatcher, and Prothonotary Warbler. In the tree-lined streets of the small town we got a tip on some very obliging Black-and-White Owls, saw Spot-breasted Wren, and found a lek of White-collared Manakins. The fantastic lowland diversity in the open fields of the refuge area concluded with sightings of Harris’s Hawk, Bare-throated Tiger-heron, White and Glossy Ibis, Northern Jacanas, Scissor-tailed and Fork-tailed Flycatchers, and a variety of passerine seed specialists. We were especially impressed with the massive pink honker of a bill on the male Nicaraguan Seed-Finch, often a tough bird to find even if you know where to look.
The final leg of the tour was a three night visit to the famous Arenal Volcano observatory, another hotspot known for its super diversity. The grounds at Arenal were hopping with a multitude of tanagers, honeycreepers, oropendolas, thrushes and orioles. A visit to the lowland reserve in La Fortuna at Sendero Bogarin held the specialty (and probably best-place-in-the-world to see) Uniform Crake. Later, the trails yielded a confiding pair of Rufous-tailed Jacamars, Barred Antshrikes, Chestnut-backed Antbird, Black-throated Wrens, a showy Kentucky Warbler, and another sleepy Black-and-white Owl.
Nice additions at Arenal included Stripe-throated Hermit, a treeful of Collared Aracaris, a perched White Hawk, a couple of calling Semiplumbeous Hawks, a Northern Barred-Woodcreeper, a couple of skulky Bicolored Antbirds that eventually showed for everyone, and a quick Ocellated Antbird glimpsed only by a few. Sky Adventures is mainly a spot for zip-lining, gondola riding and the like, but they do have some hiking trails, including one we walked up to a viewing deck on an overlook. It’s a good forest, with some real treats, including a stupendous Thicket Antpitta that sang from right out in the open almost arm’s-length away, good Golden-browed Warblers and Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant, a quartet of Carmiol’s Tanagers, and a close Wedge-billed Woodcreeper. We heard a number of other things – including Slate-throated Grosbeak, Middle American Leaftosser, and multiple Black-headed Nightingale-Thrushes.
The final morning, we birded on the deck outside the restaurant. Gray-chested Dove, and Emerald and Hepatic tanagers were new for some, a Rufous-winged Tanager made repeated short appearances, and an attractive barred morph female Great Curassow attracted plenty of attention. A few more afternoon stops for Gray Hawk, Collared (Orange-bellied) Trogons, a Sunbittern, and Bare-necked Umbrellabird, and we headed back to San Jose for the last evening.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/344394
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/cr225TRIPLIST.pdf
Sam Wilson