BIG Eagle Alert...COSTA RICA (26 Feb)

Just goes to prove the extreme diversity of the tropics, when you visit the same pace just weeks apart and turn up a very different bird list on both occasions. And so we returned to Braulio Carrillo National Park, although this time I was armed with Tayler Brooks and Andrew Spencer, a formidable sound recording team. The bird of the morning was clearly a vociferous raptor which called continually and did everything it could to get noticed. Although, when you look like an Ornate Hawk-Eagle it is hard not to get noticed, frankly. 

We had great loks at the this punky-crested eagle, as it glowered at us and called from the perch of a huge rain forest limb. On top of that we enjoyed a second visit to El Tapir, where Black-crested Coquette and Snowcaps could not have performed better, so the coquette nearly walked onto Andre's life list. We had splendid, eye-level views of this bird preening its exquisite feathers, and buzzing around their beloved Porterweed blooms.

Costa Rica continues soon...

Gold to Finish...COSTA RICA (25 Feb)

Our final day we changed plans and went on the hunt of a hot tip - a roosting Bare-shanked Screech-Owl that was allegedly a "given". As it turned out, this was not the case, and we bumped into a bunch of local guides shaking their heads in disbelief that it was not there that day as it normally was expected to be! Having tried for this also around Savegre on two separate nights, it seemed this was fast becoming my "nemesis' for Costa Rica. However, the area near Monteverde we checked out was far from boring: we found our first Golden-bellied Flycatchers for the tour (and of course lifebirds for me), and also found our only Geoffroy's Spider-Monkeys of the tour and Highland Hepatic Tanager of the tour, which fed low in the open for some time. 

Once again, we found yet more White-eared Ground-Sparrow, which were remarkably numerous for us on the tour. However, the bird that caused us to finish on the biggest of highs was a small party of Golden-browed Chlorophonias. Although we had already encountered them twice earlier, this was just one of those, special, low sightings that make you realise the bird is yet better than both you imagined and experienced previously.

And I am sure it was from this star turn that the species made it onto our top five birds of the trip list, at a heady second no less. When you see such a beautifully-coloured bird, so well, it is hard to believe it would not make it to number one in the charts, although with the unmovable Resplendent Quetzal sitting in pole position, it was perhaps understandable on this occasion, why the chlorophonias had to settle for second place! In the final countdown, over a splendid farewell dinner back at the Hotel Bougainvillea, the final top five birds of the tour were decided:

1 RESPLENDENT QUETZAL

2 GOLDEN-BROWED CHLOROPHONIA

3 SNOWCAP

4=LESSER GROUND-CUCKOO

4=BLACK-AND-WHITE OWL

...And a worthy top five too; it was certainly hard to argue with the choices, when looking back.

My TOUR in Costa Rica (actually Michael's tour) in Costa Rica may have come to a close, but my time in Costa Rica lingered on. Andrew Spencer and his Tayler Brooks were flying in, and we were set to meet again the next day and go in pursuit of yet more photos of Costa Rica's amazing birdlife...

Attack of the Killer Hummers...COSTA RICA (24 Feb)

The feeders at Monteverde are nothing short of legendary, as if the offer of cool highland species like Orange-bellied Trogons and quetzals are not enough alone to lure you there, then the hummer feeders are worth a visit in their own right, as witnessed by the masses of non-birding tourists taking an interest, and becoming honorary birders, if only for a short time.

We visited their main feeders, just outside the park, and were literally overwhelmed with the frantic hummingbird scenes: Violet Sabrewing, the real "brute" at the feeders, with its substantial bulk and power evident relative to the other smaller hummingbirds on show,  (together with its feisty temperament), and with its dashing dress: bright violet, with striking white flashes in the tail. It is impossible not to notice, and they are common there and popular there, and for good reason. I hope the photo brings this out, as they are so different in varying light conditions and from different angles.

For company the Sabrewings were competing for the sugar water with a few Coppery-headed Emeralds (actually one of the least numerous species at these feeders, with just a handful present), one of the few Costa Rica country endemics (one of only four, if you include the endemic race/species of  Prevost's Sparrow); Green Violet-ear, Magenta-throated Woodstar (such a great name), Stripe-tailed Hummingbird, Green-crowned Brilliant, and Green Hermit. 

Although perhaps the most striking one at the feeders, bar the substantially sized sabrewing of course, were the stunning Purple-throated Mountain-Gems, both sexes of which cause you to draw breath, the female with her vibrant orange underparts, and the male with his deep iridescent purple throat. 

However, hummingbirds were not the only creatures that grabbed our attention at these feeders: a mammal came in too, and a generally scarce species too: OLINGO. This is probably one of the only regular spots for it in Costa Rica (and indeed the world-they are not easy to find in many places; I have been living in Ecuador for 7 years and this was a mammal lifer here at the feeders). This or other individuals have been visiting this same set of feeders on and off over the last few decades, but in spite of this, they are never guaranteed as their visits are erratic and unpredictable in their timing. Normally largely nocturnal it was good to see the comical behavior of this lemur-like animal as it wrestled with the feeder, for which it was clearly too big, causing havoc in the process. Then after causing quite a stir among the people gathered there, (including me, who tripped rather clumsily and rather embarrassingly, in my excitement at the opportunity to photograph it.

 In the afternoon we took a short trip into some drier forest nearer our hotel, in search of the Long-tailed Manakin...

Easy birding...COSTA RICA (24 Feb)

After finally moving out of the car park at Monteverde, (once the quail-dove had decided to move on), we admired their hummer feeders for a while: Magenta-throated Woodstars flitted around excitedly but seemed vastly overpowered and outnumbered by the mighty looking Violet Sabrewings which swooped in and out more regularly, but we were to come back to another set of even more lively feeders later...

Along the forest trails it was not to admire the forest itself, massive pristine cloud forest, suitably drenched in cloud by the morning's end, with a multitude of bromeliads weighing heavy on the limbs of many of the trees, it appeared to be just brimming with life; and so it was. The most comical moment of the morning, was when an uber-tame Black Guan appeared on the path, and shortly after we had found it a tourist came blindly by, so we frantically called for him to stop for fear of flushing the bird off the track, only to see him casually stroll up to it, slip out his I-Phone and photograph it from inches away. It seems the birders were less clued up about the birds here than the "general" tourists! Another tame creature was a Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush which we tried to desperately to tease into the open, only for it to hop out onto the trail in the open when we had turned our backs on it for a moment! However, the tamest bird of the morning was arguably this Slate-throated Redstart (also called Whitestart, which refers to the white in the tail), which not only perched in the open but was so confident of our lack of threat he sung repeatedly to us...There may not have been an overwhelming amount of activity but what there was, was literally in our faces!

After this it was time to immerse ourselves with the Monteverde hummingbirds...

Bienvenidos a Monteverde...COSTA RICA (24 Feb)

Well, today was to be our first day in Costa Rica's flagship park: MONTEVERDE, arguably the most popular and well-known cloud forest reserve in the World. However, before we had even got there we had enjoyed a pre-breakfast pair of White-eared Ground-Sparrows (much to a few people's relief who had missed them on the opening day), and from the BUS, en-route to the park we had to "endure" close-ups of a male Orange-bellied Trogon; and then, on arriving in the park itself, our bus was prevented from parking for a good five minutes while this Buff-fronted Quail-Dove fed within our parking space. I was getting a good feeling about this place, and I had yet to set foot on its soil!

More Costa Rica cloud forest favorites to come, very soon...

ANTS!...COSTA RICA (23 Feb)

The most legendary name in all of Costa Rican parks was looming on our horizon: Monteverde. However, we had a little more time around the steamy lowland jungle within Carara National Park first, where we walked a different trail and saw a different Baird's Trogon, this time a male. Although, dawn found us watching a Tiny Hawk which had recently began nest building in the area (thank you Richard Garrigues for your tip off!). After quickly adding Fiery-billed Aracari to the list we were on our way for the final fling at Carara, before we departed for higher elevations and the mist-enshrouded cloudforests of Monteverde. The trail was good that morning with Riverside Wrens giving repeated views of their smartly banded undersides, and another dapper wren, Black-bellied Wren did likewise too. However, our progress along the trail was halted by a flurry of bird activity right beside the trail: ants were swarming and the birds were following suit. Many birds, some of which are in the "antbird" family follow army ants, although not to eat the ants but prey on the various creatures fleeing the swarming ants.

...And this is exactly what we were treated to, a feeding frenzy of birds around us, that included Grey-headed Tanagers, Tawny-winged and Northern Barred Woodcreepers, Bicolored Antbirds, and flycatchers and manakins dropping by too to feast on the desperate insects. This is one of the classic tropical forest experiences, and it never gets old. The excitement is always palpable, and you never quite know what might dramatically, and suddenly, drop by (as were to find out later on this trip at another swarm-TO COME!).

Up next: MONTEVERDE...

Cruisin'...COSTA RICA (22 Feb)

We enjoyed a superb, relaxing meander through the mangroves and around the mouth of the Tarcoles River, near Carara National Park. The boat had barely spluttered to life when a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron was spotted, ever-so-slowly, prowling the muddy banks-a lifebird for me right off the bat! Large, menacing, but unmoving, jaws were waiting in the shallows, which revealed a number of American Crocodiles lurking with intent to attack anything that strayed into its substantial range. 

Then  a flash of blue alerted us to a strikingly beautiful Turquoise-browed Motmot perched alongside a steep bank. The normally difficult to see Boat-billed Heron was anything but; instead of being buried within a tangle at close range, to the frustration of photographers like me on the boat, this time it just sat out in the open, unblemished and set out perfectly for photography, with it odd, swollen bill in full, glorious view. Scouring the edges eventually led us to cryptic pair of nocturnal shorebirds, the goggle-eyed Double-striped Thick-knee, which were visibly panting from the intense heat, and which shared the shore with a pair of Southern Lapwing (a bird that is still scarce, though spreading, in Costa Rica). 

Although it was a very gentle, slow cruise, and we never traveled far, we also never experienced a dull moment: Mangrove Swallows were a constant presence, sallying regularly low over the water to pick insects out of the air or to dip in the water to drink, flashing their clean white behinds as they did so. The ride finished with a meander along a mangrove-lined section of the river, where tall mangroves provide habitat for the subtle Panama Flycatcher, which was, eventually, teased out of its hiding place high in the mangrove, and a few Mangrove Warblers were also seen, along with a regular number of Common Black-Hawks, standing like sentry posts, as if "guarding" the mangrove roots from invasion from foreign enemies. A good smattering of ibis and spoonbills were seen too, with a sprinkling of northern shorebirds, down here for the season to avoid the cold Boreal winter. It was an extremely enjoyable trip, which ended with a large squadron of Lesser Nighthawks emerged at dusk to hawk around the boat dock. An extremely relaxing afternoon indeed, with several lifebirds to boot (tiger-heron & Panama Fly). 

More to come from Costa Rica soon...