Costa Rica Birding Guides

DAY 2-3: Hotel Quelitales: Cartago. Small lodge where hummingbirds, tanagers and other species live within their grounds. Middle elevation pre-Mountain forest with an altitude of 4000 feet above sea level. Away from the regular touristy areas, this particular lodge is located near excellent birding spots like Tapanti National Park, La Marta wild life Refuge, Rio Macho Road and others. Gardens with a small waterfall makes this place ideal to see middle elevation birds.

DAY 4-5 Hotel Gema del Bosque. San Gerardo de Dota. Talamanca. Best place in Costa Rica to find one of the most beautiful birds of the world: Resplendent Quetzal. This region holds many exclusive birds found only Costa Rica and Panama (Nearly endemic). A great variety of Hummingbirds. The lodge owns amazing grounds surrounded by local orchards, down the road Savegre river and Oak cloud Forest. Elevation 7000 feet approx. The highest stop during the journey. Bring your sweater.

DAY 6-7 : South Pacific. Hotel Villas Río Mar. Near the coast, we have a good taste of south pacific rain forest birds. Even when this is more a beach hotel, this location brings low land species. Surrounded by Baru River, Baru wild life refuge and coast line makes this very good spot

DAY 8-9: Cerro Lodge. Central Pacific. Tarcoles. Just a few hundred feet above sea level, hot and humid land with an impressive bird diversity. The mixture of coast line, grasslands, dry tropical forest, Carara National Park plus a river estuary make this area the most varied and productive bird site. Shore birds, Herons, parrots, (Scarlet Macaws are common here) flycatchers, trogons and other bird groups are found here because the diversity of habitats. Central Pacific has the confluence of rain forest and dry forest in the same location: Carara National Park.

DAY 10-11: Arenal Observatory Lodge. Arenal Volcano. One of the most beautiful hotel gardens, waterfalls, creeks and easy trails to hike. Bordered by lake and Arenal volcano, this location owns over 870 acres. Low land and middle elevation species converge here. One of the iconic birds this lodge protects is the Great Curassow.

Day 12:  Hotel de Campo. Caño Negro. One of the most reduced habitats in Costa Rica, the wetlands. Cattle fields, grasslands, boat tours along the Frío River gives us a unique experience within this endangered habitat. Kingfishers, flycatchers, herons and some exclusive species like Jabiru Stork (highly endangered) Snail kite, yellow breasted Crake, Nicaraguan Grackle, spot breasted wren, gray headed Dove, sungrebe among others. Caño negro is a fresh water fishing village where locals use small boat and canoes for local fishing. An authentic local visit away from crowds.

Day 13-14: Ara Ambigua Lodge. Sarapiqui. One of the top birding areas of Costa Rica. Low land rain forest located 300 feet above sea level, hot and humid, away from the coast line but influenced from Caribbean bird species for example: the highly endangered Great Green Macaw, normally the only possible site to find this amazing bird along this trip. Sarapiqui offers a great diversity of wild life, frogs, mammals and reptiles. Definitely a major stop in the country

Day 15:  Buena Vista Lodge. Central Valley. Surrounded by coffee fields and great views over Alajuela city. This is a great lodge to end our journey, located only 30 minutes’ drive from international airport Juan Santa Maria.

Day 16: Departure