Bird watching in Costa Rica

Our guide will meet you at the port and welcomes you. He will give you a little briefing, while escorting you to the hotel, and help you check-in.  You will also enjoy a welcome dinner at night. With your bird guide in hand, get ready for our best birding travel package!

Night: San José

Your birding expedition begins! Twenty minutes after leaving San José towards the Caribbean lowlands, you will drive into the Braulio Carrillo National Park, one of the largest and most diverse parks in the country. After approximately 30 minutes, you will descend into the lowlands, and you’ll be able to see the transition between the Cloud and the Rain Forest. Breakfast will be taken in a restaurant on the way. At mid morning you’ll arrive to the port where you’ll get on a river boat. Your vacation begins in Tortuguero, as today’s destination is the north coast with its fascinating canals of the Tortuguero National Park, considered the Costa Rican Amazon. Your boat will take you up to this national park, with its extensive system of canals, and to the lodge where you will spend the night. Your guide will give you detailed explanations of this complex Eco-system. Miles of untouched Caribbean beaches also offer the opportunity to see (when in season) the nesting of the green turtle, the world’s second largest sea turtle.

Night: Tortuguero

Keep enjoying your vacations in Costa Rica: another full day to explore the Tortuguero area: a floating trip on the canals is a great opportunity to see a big variety of Costa Rica´s wildlife: birds, reptiles, monkeys, and butterflies; some of the emblematic bird species you will find here are the green ibis, the mottled owl, the black hawk-eagle, the agami heron, the montezuma oropendola, the white hawk or the keel-billed toucan, just to name a few. When in season there is an optional night tour to see this famous four feet turtle laying eggs on the beach.

Night: Tortuguero

As your birding journey continues, you will transfer today to the northern plains of Costa Rica! You will arrive at your eco-lodge early in the afternoon; it offers you 1250 Acres (500 Hectares) of virgin tropical rainforest with an incredible variety of fauna and flora.  However you will make a stop in Sarapiquí for a bird watching hike at Selva Verde: toucans, great green macaws, wood thrushes, grey-necked wood rails, sun bitterns, the rufous motmot and violet crowned woodnymphs are just a few of the birds that inhabit the Selva Verde Rainforest Reserve.

Night: Boca Tapada

Although it will be hard to leave the breakfast area, because of the continuous traffic of toucans, honeycreepers, aracaris, curassows…all watchable from just a few feet away, you will eventually walk the trails of the hotel to search for more birds or other wildlife that is abundant in the rainforest and the river close to the lodge.  You could even decide to jump in the boat for a very nice ride on the river to watch crocs and other aquatic wildlife!  Over 350 bird species have been counted in this area!

Night: Boca Tapada

After breakfast, you will hike Tenorio Volcano National Park, best known for the beautiful Río Celeste, whose light blue waters are caused by the emanation of sulfur and the precipitation of calcium carbonates.  Primary cloud forest and rainforest covers the park, which abounds with flora and fauna species in multiple life zones, many rivers, waterfalls and thermal hot springs.  In the park you can explore all the natural attractions in a 2.6km hike, and of course seek for all those birds that live in the park, since this is another one of the best bird watching trips in Costa Rica. 

Night: Río Celeste

Caño Negro has an extension of 9960 hectares and it is one of the most important biological areas of the country and it is in the top four of the most important wetlands area in the world, hence it is also a RAMSAR site. It is made up of the Caño Negro Lagoon and the Río Frio. This Wildlife Refuge is perhaps the best location to see the endangered Jabiru, and it is one of Costa Rica´s best birding hotspots. Other common birds for this marshes and grassy areas are the lesser yellow-headed vulture, limpkin, black-collared hawk, the glossy ibis, kingfishers, or the yellow-tailed oriole.

Night: Río Celeste

Transfer day, one of the longer transfers of about 4 hours, as you move from the northern plains to the dry forest area of the north pacific.  Your destination is the north of Liberia, the main city of the Guanacaste province.  This province holds the only tropical dry forest we have in Costa Rica, so this is a unique opportunity for birding in this habitat!

Night: Liberia

The Santa Rosa National Park is one of Costa Rica’s most interesting protected areas since it is of great historical and natural significance. The most famous feature is Hacienda Santa Rosa–better known as La Casona–the nation’s most cherished historic monument. The old hacienda-turned-museum alone is well worth the visit.  However there are several trails available for hiking, and there you can spot dry forest bird species, like the white-throated magpie jay, the turquoise motmot (Nicaragua´s national bird), the yellow naped parrot, the elegant trogon, the laughing falcon among others!

Night: Liberia

Your journey in Costa Rica continues as you start moving from the north to the central pacific, when you will transfer to Ensenada Wildlife Refuge.  The property is a private refuge, and the lodge is family run and has also a couple of economic activities such as salt production and agro: it became one of the most visited birding lodges of Costa Rica.  Precisely, thanks to the refuge the mangrove and coastal area has recovered much of the forest, and that makes this site an excellent location for nature lovers and especially bird watchers.

Night: Ensenada

Mangroves are an important part of marine ecosystems and serve as nurseries for marine species and as water purifiers. The wildlife present in this ecosystem is unique and interesting.  You will board your boat that will carry you on a two-hour island and mangrove tour to see roseate spoonbills, hawks, black-bellied whistling ducks, and egrets, along with crocodiles and howler monkeys.

Night: Ensenada

Time to transfer again down south to the Central Pacific: this is a transition area between the tropical dry forest and the rainforest of the south, so it becomes a unique and very interesting ecosystem. On the way you make a stop at the Tarcoles River for a river safari, to get up-close with american crocodiles of all sizes, and observe an abundance of beautiful aquatic birds! Enjoy spectacular rainforest scenery and cruise through dense mangrove forest canals.  Then you finally reach the lodge near Carara. The most common that you will likely find in your walk on the trails near the lodge are the scarlet macaw, fiery-billed aracari, the black-mandibled toucan, the orange-collared manaquin, the sunbittern, the purple gallinule, the northern jacana, amazon kingfisher, the muscovy duck and the great tinamou.

Night: Carara

No visit to Costa Rica for a birding tour is complete without going to San Gerardo de Dota, but before you transfer there, you will make a stop in Barú, a wildlife refuge, which encompasses 330-hectare of land along the Pacific, offers spectacular bird and wildlife viewing. Here you can hike seven kilometers of trails through primary and secondary forest, mangrove, grassland, and even beach. In this variable landscape lives hundreds of types of birds and animals, including sloths, monkeys, peccaries, and toucans.  You will see from tinamous to herons, egrets, hawks, woodpeckers, over 300 bird species have been spotted here!  You will then continue to the cloud forest of Dota.

Night: San Gerardo de Dota

San Gerardo is one of Costa Rica´s favorite bird watching spots! Birdwatchers come all over the world to see the extraordinary Resplendent Quetzal! This is a lovely village huddled up against the roaring Talamanca Mountain Range and nested in the Savegre River Valley; over 170 species have been recorded in San Gerardo de Dota oak tropical cloud forest and nearby Sub-Alpine Rain Paramo covered peaks. This is a good site for highland tinamou, spotted wood quail, sulfur-winged parakeets, long tail silky flycather, ornate hawk-eagle, flame-colored tanager, golden-crowned warbler, spotted barbtail, black thighed grosbeak, collared trogon.

Night: San Gerardo de Dota

You will transfer back to the international airport, for your afternoon flight… SEE YOU NEXT YEAR WHEN YOU VISIT COSTA RICA!!! HAVE A GOOD FLIGHT HOME!!!

• Overnight stays: 15 nights on double occupancy, twin or double standard rooms with private bathroom on every hotel or lodge according to the itinerary.
• Fully dedicated professional naturalist guide, with emphasis on ornithology.
• Private transportation for the group, mini-van or bus with driver and gasoline.
• All breakfast and dinners included at the different hotels: lunch is also included except day 2, in hotels or on the road.
• Entrance fees to the national parks and other programmed activities, including trails in the hotels and lodges:
  • the visit of two different National Parks
  • the visit of two different wildlife refuges
  • the visit of two private natural areas
  • crocodile safari
  • Pacific beaches, lowlands and valleys, waterfalls, flora and fauna of the different ecosystems: Rain Forest, Dry Forest, transition forest, mangroves & Coastal Vegetation, and of course all the natural beauty, and the friendship of some peace loving people that Costa Rica has to offer …COSTA RICA, NO ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS !!!