Current Topic: Quetzals

Remembering My Trip to Costa Rica

Every North American birder should try to make it to the tropics at least once in their lifetime, if finances allow it. The beautiful array of birds would be worth every penny. I took my first trip in December 2011 and stayed through New Years and the first week of January 2012. I visited four different locations: the Osa Peninsula, Monteverde Cloud Forest, Arenal Volcano and San Gerardo de Dota. Even though the trip was not based on birding, I racked up 130 life birds.

The trip was suppose to be during the beginning of the dry season, however, it rained for much of the trip. This led to mostly mediocre photos – many of which I never showed anyone else since they are not up to par with my normal work. Despite this, I wanted to share the beautiful birds that I saw, even with sub-par photos. I will also mix in some of the nicer photos – though, they were few and far between!

I’m not entirely sure where to begin, so I will jump in with some of my target birds. The bird names and locations are under each photo.

Resplendent Quetzal, San Gerardo de Dota

Blue-crowned Motmot, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

Keel-billed Toucan, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Scarlet Macaw, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

Note that I also wrote a post about the Quetzal early last year where you can see more photos. This was on bird that I had great photo ops with! I plan on doing the same for the Motmot.

As expected in the tropics, I saw many species of Tanagers, most of them were very colorful.

Rufous-winged Tanager, Arenal Observatory Lodge feeders, La Fortuna

Bay-headed Tanager, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Golden-hooded Tanager, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Flame-colored Tanager, San Gerardo de Dota

White-throated Shrike-Tanager, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

Cherries Tanager with a Variable Seedeater, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

Sooty-capped Bush-Tanager, Trogon Lodge, San Gerardo de Dota

Blue-gray Tanager, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Palm Tanager, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

These birds are also classified as Tanagers, but do not have it in their name. They are still equally as beautiful!

Green Honeycreeper, Arenal Observatory Lodge feeders, La Fortuna

Bananaquit, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Yellow-faced Grassquits, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Buff-throated Saltator, Arenal Observatory Lodge feeders, La Fortuna

I also saw some species of warblers that I do not get in the northeastern US.

Rufous-capped Warbler, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Buff-rumped Warbler, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Slate-throated Redstart, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Collared Redstart, San Gerardo de Dota

Tropical Parula, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Some of the birds were cool surprises.

I nearly jumped out of the car for the White-throated Magpie-Jays, Arenal Volcano

Common Potoo hiding in the brush, Sierpe River

White-whiskered Puffbird, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

Slaty Flowerpiercer, San Gerardo de Dota

Black-throated Trogon, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

One of my favorite birds had a great mating display.

Montezuma Oropendola, Arenal Observatory Lodge feeders, La Fortuna

I saw a nice variety of different Flycatchers throughout my trip.

Great Kiskadee, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Tropical Kingbird in the rain, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Social Flycatcher, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

Yellowish Flycatcher, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Black-capped Flycatcher, San Gerardo de Dota

Possible Mountain Elaenia (still being identified), San Gerardo de Dota

Common Tody-Flycatcher, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Black Phoebe, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Some of the finches were pretty unique…

Large-footed Finch, San Gerardo de Dota

Thick-billed Seed Finch, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Especially, the colorful ones in the Euphonia family.

Yellow-throated Euphonia, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Tawny-capped Euphonia, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Elegant Euphonias are hidden in this photo, Monteverde Cloud Forest

I did see some nice woodpeckers, including a couple I did not get to photograph like the Pale-billed and Lineated Woodpeckers.

Acorn Woodpecker, San Gerardo de Dota

Red-crowned Woodpecker, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

I also saw some birds from the Thrush family.

Clay-colored Thrush, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Sooty Robin, San Gerardo de Dota

Black-billed Nightengale-Thrush, San Gerardo de Dota

Black-headed Nightengale-Thrush, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Of course, I did see some parakeets too!

Orange-fronted Parakeets, between San Juan and Monteverde

Orange-chinned Parakeet, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

I did not see many raptors, but I was able to photograph some. Unfortunately, my Owl photos are not even good enough to show on this post and my lifer Crested Caracara is too terrible.

Common Black-Hawk, Cano Island

Yellow-headed Caracara, Sierpe River

Here are a few birds that I found by the water:

Magnificent Frigatebird, off of the Osa Peninsula

Sandwich Tern, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

Bare-throated Tiger-Heron perched over a waterfall, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

Like their North American relatives, some birds were very vocal.

Great-tailed Grackle, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Brown Jay, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Some of the larger birds just chilled and let me get a nice look.

Crested Guan, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Black Guan, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Gray-headed Chachalaque, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

But many of the smaller ones were hard to catch!

Band-backed Wren, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Rufous-collared Sparrow, San Gerardo de Dota

White-eared Ground Sparrow, Monteverde Cloud Forest

Black-cowled Oriole, Arenal Observatory Lodge property, La Fortuna

Black-hooded Antshrike, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

Ruddy Ground-Dove, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula

As you can see, this post is lacking Hummingbird photos. I will put up a post specifically about them at another time since I saw so many! For now, and to close this post, I will leave you with a photo of my target hummingbird…

Violet Sabrewing, Monteverde Cloud Forest

This Bird Really is Resplendent

It all started with a photo of a Resplendent Quetzal from Bird: The Definitive Visual Guide. I just happened to be looking through the book while we were talking about a winter vacation and came across a beautiful photo of the Quetzal. I told my husband that I wanted to see that bird and eventually started looking through the different tours we could do in Costa Rica – a country that we’ve been planning on visiting even before I started birding. We specifically booked part of our trip in San Gerardo de Dota – my travel agent said that this was the place to see the Quetzal. We left for our four-part tour shortly after Christmas.

The first part of our trip was in the Osa Peninsula. I will eventually write up a separate blog about this amazing location – but I will skip it for now since there are not Quetzals in that area. The first spot that we could potentially see a Quetzal was in Monteverde Cloud forest. The tour leader took us to a spot where the bird often fed on the wild avocados, but it was fairly early in the season for them. After only a few minutes of waiting, I spotted a trogon-like bird that flew above us and into the trees. It was not difficult to relocate the bright green bird where he landed.

Male Resplendent Quetzal in Monteverde Cloud Forest.

It was not the view that I was hoping for and it was tough to get a photo because the wind blew branches all around him, but I was super excited! The bird that started this entire trip was in my sights!

The next part of our trip was also out of range of the Quetzal near Arenal Volcano. Again, I will write about that trip, and more on Monteverde where I saw another key bird, at another time.

According to my travel agent, if I wanted to see the Quetzal, we should book a night in San Gerardo de Dota; and that is exactly what we did. We had a morning Quetzal walk – sounds promising, right? We walked down the road to a private property that was full of Avocado trees. Not long after, a female Quetzal was spotted.

Female Resplendent Quetzal

Her mate eventually joined us in the distance – and then – he flew into clear view!!

Resplendent Quetzal with his beautiful tail feathers.

I was so happy at this point that I’m pretty sure I cried some happy tears. The most beautiful bird on this side of the world was within feet of me!!! The light was low since we were in a valley, but I still walked away with many great photos. He plucked an avocado from the tree and started downing the entire fruit WHOLE.

Resplendent Quetzal eating a wild Avocado whole.

And to our luck, he sat for a while to begin digesting. We ended up having two pairs show up that morning! What a treat it was to hear them call back and forth and, most of all, see the males fly from tree to tree. I wish I could have captured that – they have the most beautiful flight I’ve ever seen!

Resplendent Quetzal digesting.

As you can see from this photo that my husband took, I was HAPPY!!!

iPhone Photo by Diego Penta

Forty minutes and hundreds of photos later, we trekked our way back up to the lodge. The next morning, even though I was not scheduled for the tour, I walked to the area myself to try and get a last look at this beautiful bird. This time, I somehow managed to get even better views and photos of a male.

Resplendent Quetzal

Resplendent Quetzal

And one of my favorite photos of him…

Resplendent Quetzal with tail feathers blowing in the wind

He was so close, that I was having trouble fitting the bird’s body and tail feathers in one frame. At one point, I could get head shots that filled up my entire frame!!

Resplendent Quetzal up close!

I could not have asked for better views of this highly sought-after bird. I’m not sure that I will ever top this. The memories and photos that I walked away with were everything I dreamed of and more! This, however, was not the last time I saw one… as I was making my way back to the lodge, a male flew right past me into a tree behind my room!!! This was the first time I saw him in direct sun light and I was able to say my goodbyes to this resplendent bird.

Resplendent Quetzal behind my room

Resplendent Quetzal behind my room

This was my last day in Costa Rica. It certainly was the best way to end an unforgettable trip with some amazing birds!