Costa Rica Birding Trip

During our two-week temple break, Ken and his brother, Don, went on a birding trip to Costa Rica.  For years, Ken has wanted to do this.  Costa Rica is a birder's paradise.  Each spring for years a group from here would go.  Ken longed to join them, but his profession prohibited a spring trip.  He was a CPA and that was tax season.  But he's retired now and I was so pleased he could fulfill his longtime dream.  And it was everything he hoped it would be.  They had a wonderful time.   All of the pictures below were taken with Ken's phone.  Don took over 3,000 pictures with his professional photography equipment.  I will let Ken tell you about their wonderful adventure:

Both Don and I are VERY grateful to Kay and Ada for allowing us this privilege. It was a delightful, bonding experience for Don and myself. Don did all of the work. He had to lug his big camera and lens (and sometimes multiple lenses) everywhere we went. Then, when we were done birding and returned to our lodging, Don would review all of the hundreds of images he had taken, identified the birds, and organized the pictures into the appropriate digital file that he had already created. Most nights, Don spent at least an hour after I had gone to sleep, performing those tasks. He did an incredible job of capturing wonderful pictures and then identifying and organizing them. Now that the trip is over, Don is still reviewing all of the photos, and he periodically sends me emails that contain the best picture he got of each species.

Selfie of Don & I in the Hotel Bougainvillea garden.

Sept. 14

Don & I in another part of Hotel Bougainvillea's garden, where we spent hours birdwatching.

Hotel Bougainvillea's gardens were full of many types of gorgeous flowers. This is a wild orchid growing there.

Although we saw a plethora of beautiful flowers, I think this is my favorite. It is the blossom of the Jade Vine. The color and complexity of the flower is astounding to me. It was hanging from a tree just out our room's veranda at Hotel Bougainvillea in Herredia, a suburb of San Jose, Costa Rica.

Don & I standing in front of our room/lodge at Savegre Lodge near San Gerardo de Dota, which is located in a steep valley in the Talamanca Mountains of southern Costa Rica. This was our highest elevation birdwatching destination of our trip.

We found this huge moth on the window of our Savegre Lodge room. It was about the size of my hand.

We found this little beauty on our first night at Savegre Lodge. It is a type of hummingbird--an adult male White-throated Mountain Gem.

Sept. 14

This is a Black Guan. We found it at Batsu Garden, near Savegre Lodge. This bird is about the size of our local Ring-necked Pheasants.

This is a White-naped Brushfinch that came into the seed feeder at Batsu Garden.

A selfie of Ken, Don and our private birding guide at Savegre Lodge, Raul Chacon. He was the best birding guide of our trip. Each of our local private birding guides were excellent. They were able to hear, identify, and locate a visual of so many birds that Don & I would have been totally oblivious to, if we had been by ourselves.

This is a Flame-throated Warbler, one of the 163 new life-list species that I sighted on our trip.

This is an adult male Volcano Hummingbird, another life-lister for me. Due to the lighting, this image does not show the beauty that the bird's throat sometimes exhibits.

This photo and the next one are of an adult male Resplendent Quetzal. It was perhaps our highest priority target species. Raul led us to this bird early on our first morning at Savegre Lodge. We ended up getting to see 3 different males. This one's tail feathers were only about one foot long. In another several months, in breeding season, his tailfeathers will be about 3 feet long. An amazingly gorgeous bird.

Sep 15

Don & I at our second birding lodge destination, Rancho Naturalista, near Turrialba Costa Rica.

Don & Ken in front of Rancho Naturalista's main lodge, office, and restaurant. Behind this building, just outside our open-air, family style dining area, they had seed, fruit, and hummingbird feeders that coaxed the birds and animals out of the jungle foliage and into the open for us to see them. Above the dining area, they had a viewing deck, that was perfect for watching what came to the feeders and the trees behind the lodge. 

This is an Agouti. It is a rather cute, but large rodent. It looked like a miniature Capybara. It came regularly to feast at the lodge's feeders.

This is a "Tree Tomato". At Batsu Restaurant, I ate a dish that featured a sauce made from this fruit. It was put over rice and was quite nice.

Sep 16

This is a Lesson's Motmot that came to Rancho Naturalista's fruit feeders.

This is a Tarantula that was one of our neighbors at Rancho Naturalista. One of the groundskeepers picked it up on his machete and showed it to me.

Ken, Don and Mercedes. She was our private birding guide at Rancho Naturalista and was our prettiest guide. She had grown up in this area, and knew the local birds very well. We felt she was perhaps our second-best birding guide.

This is a White-nosed Coati Mundi. It frequented Rancho Naturalista's fruit feeders, much like the Agouti.

Sep 17

This is an adult male Shining Honeycreeper that I found at a feeder at Cope's Garden in Guapiles, Costa Rica. On our drive from Turrialba to Sarapiqui, we stopped at this man's garden and had a delightful time picking up a number of new life-lister species for me. As we sat at a counter watching these beautiful birds, Cope brought us each a luscious Costa Rican lunch made by his dear wife. The food was delicious and the birds were amazing. The next 5 pictures were also taken at this location.

These are an adult male Green Honeycreeper and a Montezuma Oropendola.

This is a Collared Aracari.

This is a Chestnut-headed Oropendola.

This is a Russet-naped Wood-Rail.

This was a juvenile Smooth Helmeted Iguana/Helmeted Basilisk lizard.

Another shot of the White-nosed Coati steeling the fruit from the birds' fruit feeders at Rancho Naturalista.

A cute little squirrel that also appeared regularly at Rancho Naturalista's fruit feeders. It ate a surprising amount of bananas.

A selfie of Ken, taken from the viewing deck at Rancho Naturalista's lodge.

Sep 18

This is a Cinnamon Woodpecker that we found at Pierella's Garden in Sarapiqui, Costa Rica.

This is a Cocoa fruit, from which chocolate is made. Our private bird guide in the Sarapiqui area, Geiner, had a side-job of making chocolate. He showed us this fruit and explained the intricate 7-step process of making chocolate out of this fruit.

A frog we found in our lodge's frog garden. We were staying at the La Quinta Lodge in Sarapiqui, Costa Rica.

This is a picture of the unique white bats that are found in a few places in Costa Rica. We found these at Pierella Garden. If you look closely, you will find 3 adult females, each with a little baby.

This is a Pink Glasswing Butterfly. We found it at Pierella Garden. The owner of this garden, Mr. Pierella, started the garden to raise butterflies of different varieties. He sells them, in their various stages to museums and butterfly gardens throughout the world.

This is an adult male Green Honeycreeper, feeding at the fruit feeders at Pierella Garden. Similar to our experience at Cope's Garden the day before, we were seated at a covered, open-air dining area, with the Garden's fruit and hummingbird feeders right in front of us. We were fed another yummy, authentic Costa Rican meal. As we munched and watched the birds, I remarked to Don, "We sit here eating as we watch the birds come to their feeder, while the birds sit there eating as they watch us humans come to our feeder."

This is an adult female Green Honeycreeper, with a Blue-gray Tanager peeping in.

This is a non-breeding plumage male Red-legged Honeycreeper.

This is a Yellow-crowned Euphonia. This photo and the previous 3 were all taken at the Pierella Garden fruit feeders.

This is a two-toed sloth, checking out our arrival at Pierella Garden.

This is a momma and baby Peccary that I saw at the La Selva Biological Station in Sarapiqui, Cost Rica.

Ken, Don, and our private birding guide in the Sarapiqui area, Geiner. Our morning together at the La Selva Biological Station was rather wet. It was the rainiest day of our entire trip, and certainly dampened our birding activities that morning. But despite the frequent heavy rainfall, we still got in some productive birding.

This is a Strawberry Poison Dart Frog that we saw in Pierella Garden.

This is a Collared Forest-Falcon that we found at La Selva Biological Station. We were baffled at the protruding lump that this bird appears to have in the middle of its breast.

sep 19

The view from the upper birding balcony at the Arenal Observatory Lodge. This place was our favorite birding location. It was relatively cool (our second-highest elevation lodge), the views everywhere were spectacular, the bird life was rich, the food was good, and the fragrance in the air everywhere we went there was very pleasant and alluring. Behind me you can see the fruit feeder balcony and Arenal Lake in the background. 

A sunset view of Arenal Lake from our room's veranda.

The biggest challenge at Arenal Observatory Lodge was that we were placed in a room that was 400 meters from the lodge and restaurant. We had to ascend about 300 feet to get from our room to the main lodge. This is a picture of Ken on the path between our room and the lodge. Note the lights next to the path. They would come on each evening and created a magical ambiance as we traversed this path.

One of the many Spider Monkeys that inhabited the jungle around Arenal Observatory Lodge and grounds. It was fun to watch the family members interact with each other.

This is a Crested Guan.

Ken and Don standing in the parking lot in front of the Arenal Observatory Lodge, with the Arenal Volcano steaming in the background.

This is an adult male Great Curassow, looking up into a tree for food. It would fly up, peck the fruit on the fly, and then land. Then it would repeat the process.

Don & Ken standing on our room's veranda at the Arenal Observatory Lodge, located near LaFortuna, Costa Rica.

This is a Yellow-throated Euphonia, visiting the fruit feeder at the La Quinta Sarapiqui Lodge.

This is an adult male Shining Honeycreeper, at the La Quinta Lodge's fruit feeder.

This is an adult female Red-legged Honeycreeper at the La Quinta Lodge's fruit feeders.

This is a Scarlet-rumped (Passerini's)Tanager at the La Quinta Lodge's fruit feeder. This bird was in most of the locations we visited. It was beautiful. When it flew through the forest, I usually just saw the red of the rump and back. It looked like a red dot flying through the jungle because the black color just blended with its surroundings.

This is a Blue-gray Tanager, feeding at La Quinta Lodge's fruit feeder. This species was also almost everywhere we went in Costa Rica.

Sep 20

Arenal Observatory Lodge's bird feeder balcony.

Ken & Don standing in the parking lot in front of the Arenal Observatory's main lodge, with the Arenal Volcano in the background.

Ken, Don, & Christian, our shared birding guide provided by the Arenal Observatory Lodge.

This is an Orizaba Silkmoth we found near the Arenal  Observatory Lodge.

This was a common flower around the grounds of the Arenal Observatory Lodge. It is called the "Shampoo Plant" because each of those pockets captures rainwater and the local women take that water from the plant and use it to shampoo their hair. I was surprised how much water that one of those flowers holds.

This is a Stream Anole Lizard. Note the beautiful yellow throat pouch it can display. We saw several on the grounds at Arenal.

Ken, Don, and Edwardo, who was one of our two shared-nature guides provided by the Arenal Observatory Lodge. Christian and Edwardo shared the duty to lead a nature walk around the grounds several times a day. Don & I went on three of these walks. I liked Edwardo best because he was more bird-focused than Christian.

This is the yellow color morph of the Eyelash Viper, which we found near the Arenal Lodge. I think it is very pretty!

Two Golden-hooded Tanagers feeding in the canopy of a tree near the Arenal Observatory Lodge's fruit feeder balcony.

A Black-cheeked Woodpecker feeding on a watermelon at the Arenal fruit feeder.

An adult female Green Honeycreeper at the Arenal fruit feeder.

A juvenile White-nosed Coati Mundi, hunting for a meal at the base of the Arenal fruit feeder. When we checked in at the Arenal Observatory Lodge, they cautioned us to keep our room's doors closed and locked because they said there are a bunch of "naughty coaties" that will get in the rooms and ransack them if they get a chance.

sep 21

The iconic Costa Rican Red-eyed Tree Frog. The Arenal Lodge had a particular pool of water where we could go to find these beautiful creatures each night between 6 and 8 PM.

Ken and Don at one of the several hanging/swinging bridges we found on the Arenal Lodge's property.

Ken & Don at a waterfall on the grounds of the Arenal Observatory Lodge.

This is a Redback Coffee Snake that we found at the Arenal Observatory's lodge.

This is a juvenile Central American Whiptail lizard we found on the Arenal Lodge's grounds.

Ken, Don, and Nestor Villalobos, our private birding guide at the Arenal Observatory Lodge. Nestor knew his birds, but he wasn't very focused on helping us get visuals and pictures of the birds. He was probably our least favorite private bird guide because of this. But he was certainly better than the Lodge' employee nature guides.

The view of Arenal Observatory Lodge's bird feeder, with Arenal Volcano in the background. This photo is taken from the Lodge's balcony.

This is a Blue Ginger Flower.

This is a Bamboo Orchid. They were all over the grounds, and also just behind our room.

This is a spotted Antbird.

Our nature guide told us this is known locally as the "Machete Flower" because the longest flowers are in the shape of a machete. However, AI tells me that this is the flower of the Coral Tree.

Two adult female Great Curassows feeding at the Arenal Lodge's fruit feeders.

sep 22

This is a Great Potoo. We found it on our night walk in Cano Negro, with the help of our private guide Mila (short for Milagro). I was surprised how large this bird is. It was almost pheasant sized.

Don, Ken & Mila, our private guide for our night walk in Cano Negro, Costa Rica.

This is a Blue Walking Iris. I was captured by its beauty. It was just one of the many, many flowers located on the Arenal Lodge's grounds.

This is the brown or "coffee" color morph of the eyelash Viper, which we also found on the Arenal Lodge's grounds.

Ken & Don on our night walk in the jungle in Cano Negro, standing in front of a VERY old native tree.

sep 23

Ken & Don standing near the open-air restaurant at the Natural Lodge, where we stayed in Cano Negro.

Ken and Don with our private birding guide and boat captain in Cano Negro. Her name is Rosie, and she lives in a home that can only be reached by boat. She was great.

A Pacific Screech Owl we found on our boat trip in Cano Negro.

An adult Northern Jacana in Cano Negro.

An agitated pair of Northern Jacanas we found in Cano Negro. I think we got too close to their nest, and so they were showing their displeasure.

This is a Common Water Hyacinth flower that we found on the waters in Cano Negro.

An anteater we found on our water birding tour in Cano Negro.

sep 24

Ken in front of our last lodge/hotel on our trip, the Buena Vista Hotel in San Jose.

A beautiful waterfall in the mountains above San Jose, Costa Rica.

This is a Violet Sabrewing.

A Violet Sabrewing that we were blessed to see at our lunch stop at Mirador Cinchona Soda in the mountains north of San Jose.

A Northern Emerald Toucanet that we were blessed to see at our lunch stop at Mirador Cinchona Soda in the mountains north of San Jose.

The view off the dining area of the Mirador Cinchona Soda.

sep 25

This is the Juno Longwing Butterfly, also known as the Juno Heliconian or Juno Silverspot.

This is a Crimson Patch Butterfly, one of many butterfly species we saw behind the Buena Vista Hotel, in their Lantana flowers.

This is the Julia Heliconian Butterfly, also known as Julia Butterfly, the Flame or Flambeau.

This is the White Buttercup or also known as the Dark-eyed Turnera Flower. We found it in the gardens behind the Buena Vista Hotel.

Ken & Don in the backyard of the Buena Vista Hotel. Notice the beautiful view of San Jose in the valley behind us.

We were blessed with an incredible two weeks of precious memories and awesome adventures. I was once again astounded by God's beautiful creations. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to God, our dear wives, and our tour company that prepared and scheduled all of this, Costa Rica Focus. Adri was our contact person there. I would be remiss to not mention our wonderful and dependable private driver for our whole trip, Sergio. He drove us from hotel/lodge to lodge.