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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Our trip to Costa Rica and my first list (1 Viewer)

Oh, there are all these field guides you can buy with pictures, but most of us never get to see any real tropical birds. So I read books that have more detail. One is just on Antbirds and Ovenbirds. I forget the author, but there is only one book.

A general book on tropical wildlife, The Neotropical Companion, describes groups of birds in broad terms.
 
Dave B Smith said:
Wildflower,
What a fantastic list! I've been to Costa Rica several times but don't have anywhere near the list you do. We saw our first Lovely Cotinga yesterday here in Mexico.

And your photos are superb! The second one looks a lot like the Slate-throated Redstart. Their belly is supposed to be an Orange-yellow in Southern Costa Rica although your photo looks more like just yellow (they're almost red here in Mexico). The white outer tail feathers also fit this bird. They typically "flit" about and flash the tail. If you can check any of your other photos to see how the throat color is you might be able to confirm if this is what it is.

Here's a link to a photo of the Costa Rican version of Slate-throated Redstart

Good luck.
Hello Dave. I may have been in touch with you some time ago when I was thinking of going to Mexico. Now it is a sure thing. I will be at the southern tip of the 'Mayan Riviera' for the week starting March 7. Do you know of good birding spots around there that are easy to get to? I won't have a car. ANd is there a good Mexican field guide (I mean the book) that might be available world wide?
 
Art,
First for the books; The BEST and most important is a 'Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America' by Steve Howell and S. Webb. Next would be 'A Bird Finding Guide to Mexico' by the same authors. They cover this area (Caribbean) pretty well with site suggestions and transportation. Then I would also carry a U.S. Bird Field Guide (Sibley or Peterson) for the entire US or the Eastern birds. The Howell book doesn't give many illustrations (but does have good species accounts) on seabirds, shorebirds, or waders. The US books do and also do a better job on Warblers who will still be there in March.

Assuming by the South part of the Mayan Riviera you mean Tulum or Playa del Carmen ? Closest place is the Sian Ka'an Biosphere reserve. There are guided trips here that may be a better way to get in and around. It's huge. Then further south is the town of Felipe Carillo Puerto (covered well by Howell). Cozumel is a must see if you like endemics. Inland a little are the ruins of Chichen Itza, another really good site. The Blue-crowned Motmots breed here in the back of the nunnery (inside) and I know in June are constantly feeding the young. March might be a little early for this.

Tim Allwood visited this area last summer and posted a good trip report but I can't find the link right now. Maybe PM him and ask for the link.

Buen viaje!
 
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Hi Wildflower,
Thanks for that nice Motmot picture showing us why it's named Blue-crowned Motmot! Where I lived in Monteverde they nested less than 20 meters from home, and being so tame,bold and beautiful I watched them for a while almost everyday. I miss them.
Your list is simply amazing. What I consider the best stuff with a short explanation is listed below.
* Not seen in 4 years in CR (birding quite a lot!)
Highland Tinamou (usually hard to get a decent view though fairly easily heard)
Tiny Hawk (very hard to spot)
Spotted Wood-Quail * (not that difficult to get but I've been unlucky...)
Grey-breasted Crake (very hard to catch a glimpse of)
White-chinned Swift (very hard to id for sure)
White-crested Coquette* (limited range and as most Coquettes not easy to predict where to find it)
Keel-billed Motmot* (very scarce and limited range, where on ear... did you get that one?)
Lovely Cotinga (very scarce and, as Coquettes, not easy to predict where to find them, where did you get that one?)
Turquoise Cotinga* (not that dif. to get, is my nemesis bird in CR...)
Yellow-billed Cotinga (very local)
White-throated Flycatcher (very local, where did you get that one?)
Black and white Becard (scarce and dif to know where to find)
Yellow-throated Warbler (very rare in CR)
Palm Warbler (very rare in CR)
Wrenthrush-Zeledonia (common but hard to get, very skulky)
Slate-colored Seedeater* (very scarce and unpredictable, where did you get that one?)
Slaty Finch* (same as the seedeater)
Rusty Sparrow* (very very local and scarce, where did you get it?)
Grasshopper Sparrow* (same as Rusty Sparrow)
Thanks for your time and patience
Motmot
 
Hi
We're looking for somewhere to travel to for next year.
Think this could be the place.
The birds in C.R. look & sound Great!
What is that Country like..? Is it easy to get about? Is it safe for tourists? etc
Hope to purchase a field guide for that area very soon.....?
Stevie.
 
Wildflower and Motmot, thanks very much for all the info. Sorry for the delay but my computer has been very sick! May be in touch again when I have time to digest your information and I start to put together my trip next Spring.
Andy
 
Wildflower said:
Andy, thank you for sharing information on your 2002 stay in Costa Rica. Are there any decent accommodations in Santa Rosa Parque Nacional? Any unique birds? Where is it exactly located?

Hi Wildflower and sorry for not getting back to you earlier but I've had major techno-meltdown!
Santa Rosa P.N. is in the far north-west of Costa Rica. It has a number of specialities as it largely comprises tropical dry forest, which is now a very rare habitat not occurring elsewhere in the country. Dry forest made up only 16% of the original vegetation of the world's tropics - and deforestation has considerably reduced that figure.
From December to May, there are no leaves on most of the trees, which makes birding rather easy! Of course during this period, some of the birds migrate out, so the best time to take advantage of the conditions is late April-May, when they return to breed. Following the onset of the wet season in mid May, everything rapidly becomes re-vegetated.
I was working in the park and stayed in the dormitories at the research station. Visitors can lodge and have meals there by prior arrangement, but may have to share rooms with others. The tel. numer is 666 5051.
I'm not aware of other accommodation within the park, but there are plenty of places to stay in the Guanacaste general area.
I hope this is helpful and thanks again for all the info you've passed on.
Best wishes
Andy
 
My apology to all of you for not coming back here sooner. Unfortunately, my husband came back from Costa Rica with a terrible case of bacterial infection and his illness kept me extremely busy and away from my computer.

Dave, because of my husband's illness we had to cancel our trip to Mexico but I appreciate your offer.

Motmot, I will try to check my notes soon and let you know where we saw birds you listed.

Stevie, in my opinion, Costa Rica is “the place" for birders. It is safe for tourists as long as you don’t mind driving or be driven on those horrible roads. Just don’t stay at El Remanso on Osa Peninsula. This is where my husband got Campylobacter. I would suggest staying at two magical places for birding, one being Savegre Lodge and another Bosque del Rio Tigre on Osa Peninsula. There are so many more fantastic places we heard and read about. We only covered a small fraction of this friendly country.

Andy, have fun planning your trip and if you would like more details feel free to send me e-mail. And, of course, thank you for all great information. At this point my husband doesn’t want to hear about going back to Costa Rica, at least for a while.

Good birding to all of you
 
Wildflower,
Glad to see you back on line. Sorry to hear about your Hubby getting sick in CR. There's nothing that will take the fun out of an adventure like getting sick. Hope he's better now. Also thanks for the recommendations of places in the Osa Peninsula.
 
Reply from El Remanso

Wildflower,
We are very sad and surprised at hearing your comments about your husband getting sick. We wish that you would have contacted us directly, and promtly which would have been the responsible thing to do, in case you suspected he contracted it here. We find it highly unlikely that he contracted it here. We are one of the few lodges that has their water tested, and our results show high quality potable water. In any case we consider it a very serious accusation in an open forum like this We are open to and accept constructive critizisim because it helps us to improve which is our goal. We accept that you did not like El Remanso, obviously every person has different tastes.What is difficult for us to accept is your widespread accusation that your husband contracted the bacteria here. We have never had people contract anything here, but we have had people arrive sick from other places which we have treated with all of our love. That is why we are replying to this post.
However, I do need to defend the guide you had, Neyer who is able to show over 75 species of birds in a morning walk on a normal day, and we apologize if he was sweaty, but hey, we live in the tropics. He is well known around Costa Rica as an exceptional guide, and is directing the Harpy Eagle Conservation project and is instrumental in their protection. I continue to highly recommend him.
We are so sorry that you were not happy here, if we had known something about this you can be sure that we would have put all of our effort into resolving your situation.
Belen and Joel
 
Tero, please tell my why do you think those birds you listed above are the most interesting. As a beginner I am trying to learn as much as possible from those who are more knowledgeable and experienced.


Dave, thank you for identifying the bird in my photo and for a link to another photo.

I have to say that my husband and I are very proud of our list but if it wasn’t for those superb guides we had our list would be very, very short.
Dave, we are going to Mexico, Durango area, in the end of January for birdwatching.

Andy, thank you for sharing information on your 2002 stay in Costa Rica. Are there any decent accommodations in Santa Rosa Parque Nacional? Any unique birds? Where is it exactly located?

My husband and I are very independent travelers. We like flexibility. We always book our accommodations directly with lodges we want to stay in. Once a while there is a place that doesn’t live up to our expectations (this year it was El Remanso on Osa Peninsula) but overall we are very pleased with arrangements we make.

This January Savegre Lodge transfered us to their lodge from Courtyard Hotel near the International airport in San Jose for US $100.00. Once there we did not need a car. Then after four days they transferred us to Wilson Botanical Garden for US $150.00. We didn’t need a car at Wilson. Wilson Boatanical Garden arranged for us taxi (US $37.00), we paid directly to them with our credit card, from the Garden to Golfito where we took a ferry (around US $2.00 per person) to Puerto Jimenez on Osa Peninsula. We were met at the dock by taxi arranged by Bosque del Rio Tigre. The cost of it was included in the Birding Package we arranged with Bosque del Rio Tigre. Our return flight from Puerto Jimenez to San Jose was US $84.00 per person. We spent US $30.00 for taxis in San Jose. So our total cost came to around $500.00. I don’t think we could rent a car cheaper than that and we didn’t have to worry about driving, gas, potholes and flat tires. As you may know many roads in Costa Rica may be compared to recurring nightmares.

Andy, did I answer all your questions? This is probably more than you ever wanted to know.

Motmot, great information. The photo of Motmot below is for you

Thank you all


Concerning Santa Rosa, I would be interested in hearing about any new accomodation found near there as well. As far as I know, thre might be lodging available within the park at a ranger station with advance notice. There is also a primitive campground. I camped there in 93 and would love to go back. I was impressed by the amount of wildlife- lots of monkeys, sometimes in the trees above the campsite, several Great Curassows, tracks of either Puma or Jaguar on the roads, Peccaries, etc.. As for birds, the birding was good, excellent actually for Pacific slope dry forest species. Although many of those sp. can be seen elsewhere in other countires, things that tend to get hunted out in places with less protection such as like Thicket Tinamou, Crested Guan, Great Curassow were fairly common at Santa Rosa. As a side note, it is also the only site where I have seen White-tailed Hawk and Elegant Trogon in Costa Rica.
Santa Rosa is found just off the PanAmerican highway (entrance on west side of highway) between Liberia and Nicaragua. With own transportation, it might be easiest to stay near Liberia and visit as a day trip (?).

good birding,
Pat
 
Oh, there are all these field guides you can buy with pictures, but most of us never get to see any real tropical birds. So I read books that have more detail. One is just on Antbirds and Ovenbirds. I forget the author, but there is only one book.

A general book on tropical wildlife, The Neotropical Companion, describes groups of birds in broad terms.

Antbirds and Ovenbirds by Skutch- one of my favorite bird books.
Another excellent one about Neotropical Birdng is Neotropical Birds" by Hilty- great reading before any trip to the Neotropics, especially South America.
 
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