Caravan operates hundreds of Costa Rican tours every year. They are nature oriented, not specifically geared to birders. The tours stay at superior accommodations and include good food at every meal. I did not include the exact itinerary as it is readily available on their website. Like me you may have a non-birder spouse and wonder if this is a reasonably productive way to see some of Costa Rica.
Most Ticos speak better English than my limited espanol, indeed some New York high school kids in Fortuna complained that they had trouble practicing Spanish as everyone replied in English.
The Birds of Costa Rica by Garrigues is an excellent field guide – I wish all field guides were at this level. I also have Stiles & Skutch but left it home this trip. I used Leica 10x bins, no spotting scope and have found a small digital recorder useful for creating notes while watching species not obvious at first sight.
San Jose
Barcelo Palacio has extensive gardens and a nearby walk toward Lari [to the right as you exit the guarded car park] behind the hotel offers a small additional site. It is also not in downtown San Jose so it is not entirely foolhardy to venture out in the early morning. [Note: do NOT pick a tour which starts in the Aurola, a Holiday Inn pit in downtown SJ. Currently they spend the last night there apparently to save a few bucks. But do not accept an Aurola start; protest loudly and repeatedly by phone, they can move you.]
The surprise bird was a Yellow-tailed Oriole in the front trees almost at eye level from our third floor room [third floor here is 4 floors above the lobby]. Birds seen here and many times in CR include Rufous-collared Sparrows, GT Grackles, nearly as ubiquitous Rufous-tailed Hummers, Social Flycatchers, Great Kiskadee, White-winged Doves, Hoffman’s Woodpecker, Common Tody, Clay-colored Thrush, soaring Black and Turkey Vultures, Tropical Kingbirds, Blue-and-white Swallows, Grey-rumped Swifts, Blue-grey Tanagers, Palm Tanagers, Blue-crowned Motmot, Blue-black Grassquits and Black-cowled Oriole.
I saw the only Scarlet Tanager pair here. Red-lored Parrot and Crimson-fronted Parakeet were seen in the back trees. Disappointingly few wood warblers were seen. Common, not resident, Yellow Warblers seemed to be everywhere in Costa Rica.
The second day includes a visit to the Poas Volcano. Because American Airlines did a real number on us we missed that portion. In 2007 when visiting Poas it was foggy/cloudy with very limited visibility and crowded trails. Then Fiery-throated, Magnificent and Rufous-tailed Hummers were seen as was a Mountain Robin and a White-eared Ground Sparrow.
The following day driving through Braulio Carrillo can be the start of frustration as you know you are driving past many good birds. Caravan literature states they are forbidden to stop here, however it is a choice they have made.
Lunch was at a small restaurant with some grassland and woods behind it. We started to see Thick-billed and Variable Seedeaters, Montezuma Oropendola [one of the great birds of Central America], Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Kingbirds and Mangrove Swallow.
The pineapple operation stop was notable for a migrating Turkey Vulture group of 450 birds at extreme altitude. From the size/shape I think Swainson’s Hawks were represented. No identifiable Broad-winged Hawks were seen. Mississippi Kites were also not seen, and this was the only large migrating group seen for this trip. Like the wood warblers they were absent.
A Crane Hawk was an exception to the generally not seen soaring raptors.
Tortuguero
A Chestnut Toucan was seen while riding to the Tortuguero boats. The boat transfer found a pitiful representative sea group near the Caribbean: 3 Royal Terns, 2 Neotropical Cormorants and a single Magnificent Frigatebird. More numerous were Green Heron, Great Egret, Big Blue and Little Blue Herons, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Anhinga, Groove-billed Ani, Inca Dove, Ruddy and Common Ground doves, Pale-vented Dove, Passerini’s Tanager, Green Kingfisher, Dusky Flycatcher and Tropical Pewee.
At the Laguna Lodge the only Summer Tanager and one of two Northern Waterthrush were seen on the grounds. No trogons were seen, three years ago they were on the grounds.
The small airport is immediately north of the Laguna Lodge, it offered the most birdy area for early morning walks. Access it by going to the right around the fence. [stay off the runway it has no control tower, etc. and two-engine planes land every morning]
The boat tours are OK but very repetitive-that is repeated stops for howlers, caiman, anhinga, iguana and basilisk. A Green-and-Rufous Hummer was the best bird.
Other ticks were Boat-billed Heron, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron [everywhere], Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, White Ibis, Common Black Hawk, Sungrebe, Northern Jacana, Spotted Sandpiper, a wonderful group of low feeding White-crowned Parrots, Black-cheeked, Chestnut-colored & Pale-billed Woodpeckers, Boat-billed , Sulphur-bellied, White-ringed, Dusky-capped and Social Flycatchers, Buff-throated Saltator and a Plain Tanager. Anhinga are everywhere, nice, but after the tenth photo stop it wears.
The area is devoid of sea birds.
On the return trip toward Fortuna a single Red-breasted Blackbird was added to the Melodious Blackbirds and Eastern Meadowlarks.
Arenal
We stayed at the Arenal Manoa [on a prior visit I enjoyed walking the woods behind the Lomas del Volcan, but it is steep]. An immediate Black-crested Coquette raised my hopes of seeing hummers but only a Violet Sabrewing was added in two days. None of the places I have stayed in CR put out any hummer feeders which would surely help the visiting birders.
Early morning I walked along the stream bank behind the Manoa and then the roadway which continues past the front of the Manoa. I was startled by loud and confiding Crested Guan in those trees. Also saw a helpful Giant Cowbird which fed among some Red-winged Blackbirds for easy size comparison.
Following that another fortuity, something flushed a Short-tailed Nighthawk which flew around briefly before disappearing across the stream.
Others: Least Grebe, Roadside and Grey Hawk, a wonderful Swallow-tailed Kite, Crested Caracara, Red-billed Pigeons, Squirrel Cuckoo, Collared Aracari, Keel-billed Toucan, Linneated Woodpecker, striking male Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Slaty Spinetail, Green and Red-legged Honeycreeper, Yellow-faced Grassquit, Black-striped Sparrow, Grayish and Black-headed Saltator, and Brown Jay.
The ride and boat trip at Cano Negro were wasted. A pair of Limpkin on the flats to the left of the boat dock and hundreds of Wood Storks were new. The boat guide is currently fascinated by a light Howler Monkey and about half the tour is to see her, then despite seeing more than 25 in the last two days some gormless turista asked for more stops to photograph Anhinga….
It might be more useful to avoid the boat portion and bird upriver to the right or around the flats to the left. Three years ago I did see a Snail Kite, Great Potoo and a Spectacled Owl on the boat.
The following day it was on to the Hanging Bridges, another great disappointment. They offer an early morning birding tour and suggest it might get 50-60 birds. Caravan arrives later, perhaps the bird guides have left for café.
The hanging suspension bridges are too unstable for binoculars and the guide’s main objective seems to be how fast they can get everyone along the trail and finished. We saw only one small bird swarm, it was ignored and we were quickly herded out of the area.
On the drive around Lake Arenal we did see several toucan groups and a couple of nice Turquoise-browed Motmots. Also more Crested Guan and Plain Chachalaca, then the first of the White-tailed Kites were encountered.
Guanacaste
I saw some birds in Guanacaste but I worked hard for them. The second day Caravan really has nothing scheduled, except an open bar in the afternoon. It is a half-a**ed affair with pre-mixed drinks and ice cubes. In this dry area I found a flock of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, Double-striped Thick-knee, Orange-fronted Parakeets, White-fronted Parrots, Canivet’s Emerald, Steely-vented Hummer, Black-headed Trogon families, Brown-crested Flycatcher [prob. seen earlier also], a single high flying Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, many beautiful White-throated Magpie-Jays, Yellow-throated Vireo, Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, Olive Sparrow, Streak-backed and Bullock’s Oriole and as Garrigues writes ‘handsome’ Stripe-headed Sparrows. I also enjoyed the confiding Rufous-naped Wrens.
Again coastal birds were pitiful: 11 Brown Pelicans, 3 Royal Terns, a single Black-bellied Plover and a Semipalmated Plover.
I walked on the Hacienda Pinilla nature walk –hardly impressive and mosquito laden at the far end. I also tried walking south along the gravel roads. Ticos are generally very helpful and friendly although walking down the road straight out of the Marriott, a very pleasant man advised me that a ‘pair of nesting Harpy Eagles’ could be found a short distance down a dry stream. Of course this seemed hardly likely, however the available areas were about equal to me and the area through the golf course had birdy habitat, so I followed that direction. No surprise –Banded Wren and no Harpy. Charitably, perhaps he did not know the difference between caracaras and eagles.
Leaving the Marriott, the Monteverde stop yielded a nesting pair of Rose-throated Becards [no rose]. A single Snail Kite was seen near Nicoya and as we crossed the upper Nicoya Bay my sea bird score remained static with a single frigatebird in sight. Do they poison the ocean around CR? I’ve never seen such birdless shores.
The stop in Sarchi produced another Cinnamon Hummingbird.
As the jet left the San Jose runway the following day, the last bird was a tossup between Black Vulture and Great-tailed Grackle.
Note: the Caravan tour has dropped some birding sites in the last two years: a stop in Braulio Carrillo park, a cloud forest stop, a brief stop at La Selva, the Britt coffee plantation visit, and Jaco and Manuel Antonio Park. The current version has no hope of seeing the wonderful Scarlet Macaws dawn flight.
The total could be boosted by hiring a local guide for a full day in Fortuna and Guanacaste, or a post tour extension to La Selva, etc. It could also be greatly helped if Caravan offered a couple of half day birding walks. From the number of people who approached me about bird IDs or tips I think it would be well attended.
A better birder could pick up a few more tyrant flycatchers, but whole families of other species were not seen at all, therefore giving no trouble with ID by the worst way possible.
Ten days = at least 250-300 species should be expected by a moderately proficient birder. And your spouse will be happy.