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BEGINNERS' COSTA RICA
Birdquest's Beginners' Costa Rica birding tour is the idea way to take first birdwatching steps into Central America. Our Beginners' Costa Rica tour will allow you to see a wonderful selection of birds in this small but bird-rich country, but at an easy pace, with plenty of time to look at and learn each species, whether it is gaudy stars like the Resplendant Quetzal, trogons and toucans or skulking antbirds.
Wednesday 15th February -
Sunday 26th February 2012
(12 days)
Leader:
Matt Denton
Group Size Limit: 9
Tour Category: Easy
The remarkable Resplendent Quetzal, should be Costa Rica's national bird rather than the rather dull (though sweet-singing) Clay-coloured Thrush! (Pete Morris)
Maybe you are a beginning birdwatcher ready for your first trip to the Neotropics (or a more experienced birder that visited Latin America quite some time ago and would like to return and learn more)? You have long imagined how enjoyable it would be to take your first steps into the rich wonders of tropical birdlife. However, the idea of birding outside of your home region seems an overwhelmingly rich yet somehow a rather frightening experience, and this worries you. This easy-paced beginner’s tour visits Costa Rica’s three best birding spots, each one with a different set of birds. In this manner, we will enjoy less travel time and more field time in a destination perfectly suited for this purpose. Along the way, we will ensure that you not only absorb the varied birdlife, but we will also show you how to become a better birder. While in the field and through evening discussions, we will emphasize field identification and natural history over getting a huge bird list. This will help you to separate the different bird families through techniques that you can go on to apply anywhere in the world. By the end of the trip you will have gone from being a tropical novice to a tropical aficionado, and admittedly in a country like Costa Rica we can’t help but see a wealth of birds!
Costa Rica is now well-known as one of the best areas for birding on earth, for a series of stunning wildlife films and the many glowing reports from visitors have made people realize what a treasure house of nature this gem of a country really is. Costa Rica is one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America with the highest literacy level in the region, no army (it was abolished as unnecessary in 1949!), stable democratic government, excellent standards of public health and the highest percentage of land area devoted to national parks and reserves of any country in the world.
For the birdwatcher the factor that makes Costa Rica so attractive is not simply its astonishingly rich avifauna, but the fact that it is packed into such a small area. In Costa Rica one could, if one wanted, drive from the Pacific lowlands up over the central highlands and down to the Caribbean lowlands in a matter of five or six hours, passing through every major habitat zone found in Central America! Most of these same habitats and bird families also occur further south into Latin America making Costa Rica the perfect stepping stone to future Neotropical birding endeavors.
This carefully crafted itinerary of under two weeks duration takes in the best birding that Costa Rica has to offer. The tourism infrastructure of Costa Rica is excellent. Superb, mostly easy birding, good accommodations and quite good roads make birding this small but incredibly rich country a real pleasure. During the trip we will enjoy two separate boat rides on either slope to add to our birding experience.
We shall begin near San Jose in the gardens of the Hotel Bougainvillea, before driving over the Caribbean slope to experience the wonders of cloud forest hummingbirds. Our first lodge is located in the unforgettable, bird-rich Sarapiquí region in the Caribbean lowlands. Here we will spend much of our time at the world–renowned Organization of Tropical Studies’ reserve at La Selva. With arguably the best birding in Costa Rica, La Selva is also one of the most accessible rainforests anywhere, with an abundance of birds and wildlife easily seen at this state-of-the-art research facility.
Next we will continue into the central highlands of the Cerro de la Muerte region of the Cordillera de Talamanca. The San Gerardo valley is the best place anywhere to see the distinctive Chiriqui endemic avifauna, and is doubly famous for the incomparable Resplendent Quetzal. Here we will experience representatives of many of the genera found further south into the cloud forests of the Andes, from Buffy Tuftedcheeks to Slaty Flowerpiercers, making this idyllic site an ideal place to experience Neotropic montane birding.
Our final destination will be the famous Carara Reserve where we will explore beautiful white sand beaches, mangrove swamps and some of the best remaining areas of lowland rainforest along the Pacific coast. Here, the magnificent Scarlet Macaw is still quite common and we will enjoy the host of other birds, including such stars as Boat-billed Heron at one end of the size spectrum and the endemic Mangrove Hummingbird at the other.
Birdquest has operated tours to Costa Rica since 1987.
(Note: The above is a summary of the tour. For more information please download the detailed, day-by-day itinerary. The button is at the top right of the page.)
The hotels/lodges are mostly of normal Birdquest standard. At the modern biological station of La Selva we will use the cabins with private bathrooms. Road transport is by small coach and roads are mostly good.
Walking: The walking effort is easy almost throughout.
Climate: At low altitudes it is generally hot, but at higher altitudes conditions range from warm to cool (even cold at the highest levels). Periods of sunny weather alternate with overcast spells. There is regular rainfall on the Caribbean slope, but elsewhere rainfall is less frequent and more irregular. It will be rather humid at times.
Bird Photography: Opportunities are quite good.
Tour Price: $3430 San Jose/San Jose. Price includes all transportation (including all flights), all accommodations, all meals, bottled water, some drinks, all excursions, all entrance fees, all tips for local drivers/guides and for accommodations/restaurants, leader services.
Single Room Supplement: $303.
Deposit: 10% of the tour price (excluding any single supplement).
Air Travel To & From The Tour: Our in-house IATA ticket agency can arrange your air travel in connection with the tour from a departure point anywhere in the world, or you may arrange your own air travel if you prefer. We can tailor-make your itinerary to your personal requirements, so if you would like to travel in advance of the tour (and spend a night in an hotel so you will feel fresh when the tour starts), or return later than the end of the tour, or make a side trip to some other destination, or travel business class rather than economy, we will be happy to assist. Please contact us about your air travel requirements.
Fiery-throated Hummingbird is a sometimes abundant regional endemic in the Cerro de la Muerte highlands. It is one of the 16 regional endemic hummingbirds seen on the tour (tour participant Rainer Ertel)
Great Curassows add to the often abundant wildlife spectacle on display, this is the male (tour participant Rainer Ertel)
... and the female Great Curassow (tour participant Rainer Ertel)
The lack of hunting here allows some species such as this Great Tinamou to be incredibly confiding (tour participant Rainer Ertel)
The remarkable Keel-billed Toucan is always popular (tour participant Rainer Ertel)
The wonderful Snowcap is just one of a long series of exciting hummingbirds that we'll see in Costa Rica (Pete Morris)
Costa Rica is a great country for seeing owls. The Cerro de la Muerte highlands are home to the Bare-shanked Screech-Owl, one of the many highland endemics seen (tour participant Rainer Ertel)
Pacific Screech-Owl is an uncommon inhabitant of the northwestern dry forests (tour participant Rainer Ertel)
... and this is probably the best tour in the world to see the handsome Striped Owl (tour participant Rainer Ertel)
The diminutive Costa Rican Pygmy Owl, a cloudforest specialist can be found in the daytime (Pete Morris)
... and Costa Rica is a wonderful country for finding day-roosting owls, including this Spectacled Owl (tour participant Rainer Ertel)
... and this stunning Black-and-white Owl (Pete Morris)
Turquoise-browed Motmot will provide plenty of colour (Pete Morris)
At La Selva we will hope to find an ant-swarm attended by the amazing Ocellated Antbird (Pete Morris)
Birdquest LLC, 3721 Executive Center Drive, Suite 268, Austin, TX 78731
Ph: 512-343-1700, Fax: 512-343-1701
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