Birdingcraft's 2012 Costa Rican list (1 Viewer)

Guiding the past two days in montane forests on Poas Volcano and middle elevation forests near the Manuel Brenes Reserve turned up dozens of great birds (Black Guan, Emerald Tanager, Scarlet-thighed Dacnis, Zeledonia, and much more) but the only new species for the year was Thicket Antpitta (538).

Guiding down at Esquinas Lodge in southwestern Costa Rica turned up a bunch of new birds for the year. A number of species are more easily found in that area than other parts of Costa Rica so I was looking forward to that trip. In a few days, we recorded over 160 species including killer looks at Little Tinamou, Great Curassow, King Vulture, Back-cheeked Ant-Tanager, Black-bellied Wren, Scarlet Macaws, 11 species of hummingbirds, and much more. I also got most of my year targets. These were:

539. American Oystercatcher: Not actually seen at the lodge but on a rocky beach near Dominical.
540. Gray-breasted Crake: Several heard from wet, grassy fields but as usual, they were invisible.
541. Blue-headed Parrot: Bad but positive looks at a few at the lodge.
542. Smooth-billed Ani: Expected and several were seen.
543. Striped Owl: Wonderful views of this one at night.
544. Olivaceous Piculet: Heard a couple and saw one of this tiny woodpecker.
545. Red-crowned Woodpecker: At least a few of this common edge species.
546. Pale-breasted Spinetail: Great, close looks at this skulker!
547. Yellow-bellied Tyrannulet: Very happy to get looks (if brief) at this tough species!
548. Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet: Saw a couple of these.
549. Blue-crowned Manakin: I only saw one of these but was glad that I did because I thought I has already gotten it for the year.
550. Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager: Glad to get good looks at this Costa Rican endemic.
551. Thick-billed Euphonia: Expected this one.
552. White-vented Euphonia: Got a few great looks at this uncommon species.
553. Ruddy-breasted Seedeater: Was hoping to get this, we only saw it on the way to the lodge.
554. Streaked Saltator: Nice surprise since they are usually found at other sites.
555. Red-breasted Blackbird: Expected and happy to see several of this striking species.

Around 6:30 this morning, I was amazed to hear an unfamiliar parakeet calling from the vicinity of the house. Incredibly, there was a rare Red-fronted Parrotlet perched on a telephone wire! The looks werent the best but they were definitive. This species is very little known and infrequently seen and appears to wander up and down the mountains in search of fruiting trees. It isnt expected in the Central Valley but apparently shows up on occasion because a friend of mine had several at this time last year in the Central Valley. The Central Valley of Costa Rica is the most urbanized area in the country. If this species historically occurred in the valley, the lack of habitat could partly explain its rarity.
That excellent, unexpected find makes 556 for the year.

A search for Unspotted Saw-whet Owl and guiding around Carara National Park has turned up a bunch of new birds for the year.

While the spotless owl refused to show in the montane forests of Irazu Volcano, I did pick up Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl (557) as it vocalized during the cold dawn. Flyover Bare-shanked Screech-Owl, Fiery-throated Hummingbirds, and Sooty Robins were also nice but they werent new for the year. The one other year bird was the hoped for Lesser Goldfinch (558). Formerly common, trapping has made it a rare species in Costa Rica and Irazu seems to be the most reliable spot in the country to find it.

Among the 160 plus species from two days of recent guiding near Carara were the following new additions for the year:
559. Pearl Kite: Fantastic looks at a bird right from the crocodile bridge. I havent seen it there before but sure hope that it takes up residence at that conspicuous location!
560. Crane Hawk: One flying past the Cerro Lodge lookout in the afternoon.}
561. Mangrove Hummingbird: Best bird of the trip! Good looks at a male during the mangrove birding boat tour.
562. Western Sandpiper: Fair-sized flock on mudflats in the Tarcoles estuary.
563. Short-billed Dowitcher: Small group of birds in the Tarcoles estuary.
564. Wilsons Plover: Several hanging out with the other shorebirds, including several Collared Plovers.
565. Northern Scrub Flycatcher: Great looks at a few of this mangrove bird along with Panama Flycatchers after we finished the boat tour.
566. Ruddy Turnstone: Unbelievably, I still needed this one!
567. Ruddy Quail-Dove: Good looks at a male in the dim recesses of the rainforest in Carara.

A morning trip to the Pacific coast on Saturday turned up 7 new birds for the year list. Although a hoped for shorebird hotspot had a little too much water for most wader's liking, a rocky shoreline near there turned up hoped for Surfbird. Since this was number 718 on my Costa Rican list, it was of course the star of the day. They pass through the country every Spring and Fall but are tough to find.

Watching the ocean from the same area turned up other year birds as Black Tern, Brown Booby, Sanderling, and Semipalmated Sandpiper, and I picked up my 2012 Black-crowned Night-Heron in an area of scrubby mangroves that hosted dozens of White Ibis.
Just after lunch, I picked up my final and 574th bird of the year in the form of a single Sandwich Tern.

With migrants starting to pass through Costa Rica, I will hopefully pick up a few species by their nocturnal flight calls.

8 new year birds today after a trip to the Costa Rican shorebird hotspot known as Chomes. Costa Ricas Gulf of Nicoya is used by thousands of shorebirds but there are very few places with accessible shorebird habitat. The shrimp ponds at Chomes are one of the best and todays lived up to its reputation with hundreds of waders. Diversity was actually a bit low but it is always a good day when more than 100 Marbled Godwits and hundreds of Western Sandpipers are seen.

New species for the year were:
575. Marbled Godwit
576. Semipalmated Plover- hard to believe that I still needed this one.
577. Least Tern- always a good site for this one.
578. Common Tern- not so common in CR.
579. Black Skimmer- great birds to watch that somehow blend elegance with a cumbersome appearance.
580. Gull-billed Tern
581. Purple Martin
582. Dickcissel- At least 2 heard as flyovers.

I picked up two more new birds from middle elevation forests on the Caribbean slope of Turrialba volcano while participating in a Cerulean Warbler count on Sunday. These were:
583. Tropical Screech Owl: Long overdue for the year as they are common in the Central Valley but I hadnt heard one until Saturday night.
584. Black-bellied Hummingbird: A local regional endemic of middle elevations.

Guiding this past weekend at Laguna del Lagarto turned up 4 new species for the year. A heard Tawny-throated Leaftosser during a dawn stop near Cinchona was 585. and the only year bird for the first day. You know that new year birds are tough to get when you only pick up one out of 150 plus species for the day!

There were several rare possibilities at Laguna and I tried for things like Tawny-faced Quail and Slaty-breasted Tinamou but 2 days wasn't enough time to find them. Laguna came through with its signature bird though- Agami Heron for number 586.

The other two species were Brown-capped Tyrannulet and a striking Scaled Pigeon for bird 588. Not too many migrants were around other than big flocks of Mississippi Kites and Red-eyed Vireos but other species should be coming through in numbers in a week or two. I doubt the migrants alone will push the year list over 600 but I should add a few.

A short morning search for migrants near the Varablanca on Sunday area turned up a calling Alder Flycatcher for bird number 589.

A day of guiding at Quebrada Gonzalez, Braulio Carrillo National Park, Costa Rica turned up two year birds during one of my most memorable birding days ever. Number 590 was a calling Striped Woodhaunter but number 591 took the spotlight. That special bird was my lifer Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo!

Fantastic species for the year, a highlight of my birding career, and number 720 for my Costa Rica list. I briefly summed up the sighting in the "Latest Lifer" thread.

Birding at Quebrada Gonzalez on Tuesday turned up two more year birds along with the ground-cuckoo again. These were:
592. Black-crowned Antpitta: I usually get this spectacular understory species earlier in the year at this site. On Tuesday, one was singing and popped out for a brief look.
593. White-crowned Manakin: This uncommon species descends to foothill sites at this time of year so it was somewhat expected. Nice to see a striking white-crowned male though instead of a dull olive female.
594. Upland Sandpiper: I was very pleased to get great looks at one of these rare migrants at a turf farm near the airport on Friday! I have only heard them calling at night as they migrate through Costa Rica so it was nice to actually see one.

Getting closer to 600, if I cant get out and see some migrants, I might hit that milestone in a couple of weeks.

Two more birds for the year after an owling sojourn on Saturday to Turrialba Volcano. One of those was a mega lifer and the reason for the trip. After an hour and a half of waiting, listening, and watching, the bird started calling and we walked through wet pastures to track it down- Unspotted Saw-whet Owl for number 595!

This species is arguably the most difficult, regularly occurring bird species in Costa Rica so myself and a few others jumped at the chance to look for it when word got out that Ernesto Carman had located at least 2. To give an idea of how tough this birds is, these were the first he had found after searching for the past 5 years.

While looking for that tiny mega owl, we also glimpsed a Barn Owl- number 596 for my 2012 list. I should break 600 next weekend while guiding in Manzanillo, an overlooked area that rivals La Selva for lowland rainforest birding.

Even though there weren't as many migrants as I had hoped for, visiting the little known birding hotspot of Manzanillo, Costa Rica paid off with enough new year species to surpass my goal of 600 for 2012.

597. First new bird was an excellent one for the year- Tiny Hawk! This uncommon raptor is infrequently seen so myself and the people I was guiding were quite happy to study one through the scope for 10 minutes.
598. Common Yellowthroat- I had hoped to pick up this uncommon migrant. We saw 2-3 birds.
599. Gray Catbird- Another much needed migrant that is easier on the coast.
600. Bay-breasted Warbler- A bunch of these were in the area.
601. Merlin- Manzanillo can be good for migrating falcons. One Merlin zipped by during our stay and that's all I needed for the year list.
602. Least Flycatcher- Although I have seen thousands of this species further north, it's a rare vagrant to Costa Rica so I was very pleased to add this for both the year and to my country list (number 722).
603. Purple-throated Fruitcrow- I wanted to pick up this fancy bird for the year over the course of the weekend. We had a family group foraging with oropendolas and toucans on our last day.

Added 6 more species to my 2012 CR list on a recent guiding trip to the Playa Hermosa area.
Birding in dry forest, rice fields, and wetlands turned up:

604. Orchard Oriole: Our group had several of these and this species isn't rare by any means so it was odd to have not seen it yet.
605. American Coot: A uncommon species in Costa Rica. We had 2 at the catfish ponds near Sardinal- an excellent, underbirded wetland site that has a lot of potential.
606. Northern Shoveler: 3 individuals among hundreds of Blue-winged Teal.
607. Harris's Hawk: Nice to pick up this uncommon species near the catfish farms.
608. Solitary Sandpiper: I was surprised to see that I still needed this one. Heard at least one in flooded rice fields.
609. Tricolored Munia: An introduced species established near Playa Hermosa.

A morning visit to the Cartago area and Ujarras didnt turn up vagrant Nashville and Cape May Warblers but I still picked up 3 year birds and had a good, birdy morning overall with several Prevosts Ground Sparrows (might be best site for this species), 6 species of hummingbirds and quite a few warblers.

610. Common Moorhen- pretty uncommon in Costa Rica.
611. Worm-eating Warbler- also uncommon in country, I always love seeing this odd wood warbler that sort of resembles something from the Phylloscopus crowned warbler complex.
612. White-throated Flycatcher- heard one in sedge habitat in front of Lankester Gardens. Not a peep from the Sedge Wrens so I still need those for the year!

Another mostly fruitless visit to Ujarras turned up lots of looks at Prevosts Ground Sparrow and another new bird for the year-
613. Garden Emerald

Amazing thing is, if I had the time, I could still pick up several new species for the year! Writing projects will probably keep me out of the field though so I suspect that I will be lucky if I get 5 new species.

Short trips to the cloud forests of Varablanca resulted in a male MacGillivray's Warbler (614.) and the lowland rainforests of Tirimbina yielded two excellent species for the year:

615. Bare-necked Umbrellabird- I was hoping we would get this one at Tirimbina as they are in the lowlands at this time of the year. We watched on bizarre looking male for several minutes and may have glimpsed another individual in the excellent lowland rainforests of this private reserve.

616. White-fronted Nunbird- Tirimbina is one of the few sites where this spectacular species can still be reliably seen in the Sarapiqui area.

I doubt I will get anything new for the year before leaving Costa Rica for a short visit to the states on December 17th but who knows- maybe I will get something new while guiding this Saturday. If I do, it will have to be something really good.