Blue Eyed Birder: 23rd March 2026 - Day 3 - Costa Rica for Bird's Wildlife & Nature

Even before the first hint of dawn at Hotel Linda, when the Pauraques were still ‘weeeoooooo’ing and only the insomniac Clay-coloured Thrushes were pre-empting the arrival of Sol, it was possible to see the entire majestic kid’s drawing form of the Arenal Volcano against a still starry sky.

The light came quickly and we were all soon out for what would become a very productive pre-breakfast wander around the gardens. The same Hummers were soon on the verbena outside my room and were joined by Bananaquits while Black-striped Sparrows revved up their engines in the shrubbery. Golden Hooded joined the regular Tanagers and a Tropical Mockingbird sung from the roof of our lodges.

Tropical Mockingbird

As we walked towards the hotel view point we added Bronzed Cowbirds, Melodious Blackbirds, Cinnamon-bellied Saltators and the usual Flycatchery things. The view across to Arenal was spectacular and the lake glimmered down to our left and added Snowy, Great and Cattle Egrets and Great Blue Heron while Crested Guans could be heard down in the forests where a troop of Mantled Howlers were performing their morning vocalisations.

Mantled Howlers

A line of flowering Coral Trees below us were attracting so many species out for a breakfast visit and we quickly picked up chunky Black-headed Saltators. Yellow-bellied Elaenias, gaudy Baltimore Orioles, Black & White, Tennessee, Yellow and Chestnut-sided Warblers, Common Tody Flycatchers, a selection of Tanagers, Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers and Cinnamon Becards. Everything was mobile and we had our work cut out getting everybody onto everything. Various Seedeaters were feeding in the grasses below us. Various Icterids were moving over with both Oropendolas, Bronzed and Giant Cowbirds and Melodious and Red-winged Blackbirds but our skyward eyes also gave us Grey Hawk and Laughing Falcon (you can guess who found that?), Southern Lapwings, Northern Rough-winged and Blue & White Swallows.

Some Chachalacas flew in to the breakfast area and both Toucans were heard in dawn duets while the first Collared Aracaris glowed with scarlet rumps way off on a distant snag. Somewhere way down in the river valley we could hear Dusky Antbirds singing.

Cinnamon-bellied Saltator

Grey-headed Chachalaca

Breakfast beckoned and a swift exit followed but even our journey to AOL was sprinkled wit RRS delights including a delightful Long-tailed Tyrant, Broad-winged Hawk, Green Kingfisher, Black Phoebes and best of all a stunning Fasciated Tiger Heron that was completely at ease with our presence as it finished its morning ablutions in the middle of the rushing stream. A short legged heron that managed to make itself look like it had no legs at all at times!

Fasciated Tiger Heron

Fasciated Tiger Heron - what a superb bird

Our pre-lunch walk began with a loiter on the AOL viewing platform where the feeders were still drawing in a selection of Tanagers included both Emerald and Golden-headed along with Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, Yellow-throated Euphonias, both Honeycreepers and Scarlet-thighed Dacnis. There were no ‘big birds’ around and the flowerbeds were very quiet with just Bananaquits and Rufous-tailed Hummers.

Black-cheeked Woodpecker

Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Red-legged Honeycreeper & Passerini's Scarlet Rumped Tanager

Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher

A Great Black Hawk circled above and two Double Toothed Kites past over as we headed into the gardens proper. We faired slightly better here with Yellow-Olive Flatbills, White-breasted and Stripe-breasted Wrens and a pair of very showy Bay Wrens which are always a favourite of mine. White-tipped Doves were mournfully ‘woooooo’ing and there were a few more Hummers with an adult male and immature male Black-crested Coquette, a single Violet-headed and several Rufous-tailed but strangely no Scaly-breasted.

Great Black Hawk

Black-crested Coquette

Black-crested Coquette - imm

Hibiscus

Bamboo Orchid

Ixora chinensis

Oncidium sphacelatum

orange barred sulphur Phoebis philea

Orange-barred Sulphur Phoebis philea

Rusty Tipped Page - Siproeta epaphus

Westwood's Satyr Euptychia westwoodi or similar

Banded Peacock - Anartia fatima

Up near the green gate we picked up a pair of Masked Tityras and a gang of Collared Aracari were sharing a fig tree with some Crested Guans while circling in the blue a pair of majestic Ornate Hawk-Eagles spiralled and called. Two Hawk-Eagle species in two days! Could we get the third?

Ornate Hawk-Eagle

Arenal was in view all day

Collared Aracari

A family of White-nosed Coatimundis fed around the flower beds as we watch the eagles. They are just so habituated to people here but once again I missed the opportunity to film them and then play it backwards where they look like small, long necked sauropods!

White-nosed Coatimundi

From here we walked down the path to greet the river and follow it down to the bridge. It was a little late in the morning and there was quite a lot of ‘normal people’ traffic in shorts, vests and flip-flops. I have no ideas what they think of us all covered up against wildlife incursions.

It is always quite hard work down there with the sound of the roaring river but some sounds do cut through including the ubiquitous White-breasted Wood-Wrens and delightfully sad Northern Nightingale Wrens. The latter is still one of my favourite sounds of anywhere I have so far travelled.

Central American agouti - Dasyprocta punctata

We bumped into a few Antthingies during the course of the walk with good views of Spotted Antbird and Dusky Antbird and Slaty Antwren and calling and ‘there it goes’ Dull-mantled Antbird. There were various Furnarids with Spotted and Wedge-billed Woodcreepers, Plain Xenops and a very obliging Fawn-throated Foliage Gleaner. A White-throated Shrike-Tanager came through but without much in tow this time and we were struggling to keep up with the movement at ground level. There were Golden Crowned Warblers and a couple of Russet Antshrikes poking around liana tangles and down at the end of the trail we found Slaty-capped Flycatcher and a Lesser Greenlet along with a Broad-billed Motmot and the orange-bellied form of Collared Trogon that came in to give us all the characteristic hard sideways stare.

Broad-billed Motmot

Orange-bellied Trogon - Trogon collaris aurantiiventris

Wedge-billed Woodcreeper

The amble back added a Golden-winged Warbler, brief White-throated Thrush, calling Ochre-bellied Flycatchers and a Sulphur-rumped Myobius as well as a strangely single Carmiol’s Tanager. Some of the Ant-thingies showed again and a brief stop gave us Olive-backed Euphonia foraging with a Bay-headed Tanager and a female White-collared Manakin.

There was of course other wildlife too with a couple of impossibly large Blue-winged Helicopter Damsels and many Leaf-cutter Ants but we could not find any Army Ants.

Blue Ringed Dancer - Argia sedula

Bromeliad Helicopter Damsels - Mecistogaster modesta

Coral Fungus sp

Lunch at AOL was of course interrupted with wildlife including Butterflies inside the building and some great birds outside! A pair of Great Curassows and Crested Guans came into the feeders where the same Tanager selection was still scoffing fruit while a White-tipped Dove tiptoes around the Coatis below.

Montazuma Oropendola

Great Curassow

Our post-repast walk began with a monster Silkmoth on the building wall which seems to be Rothschildia triloba. This time we headed down towards the frog trail but the gardens on the way still offered more delights with another Long-tailed Tyrant and a male White-ruffed Manakin was sharing fruits with a male Slaty-tailed Trogon who was flashing his red underparts.

Rothschildia triloba

Long-tailed Tyrant

White-ruffed Manakin

A gleaming King Vulture circled above with the Black Vultures and some White-collared Swifts powered through but while he was missing the Vulture, Ramon was finding the astonishing pupa of an Owl Butterfly that resembled a scaled snake head is almost every detail. Quite a remarkable evolutionary adaptation. It was one of my favourite finds of the whole trip.

pupa of an Owl Butterfly

King Vulture

Further in we heard a Violet-headed Hummingbird lek invisibly high in the trees and another White-throated Thrush came through the trees. We had more luck with the White-collared Manakins and good views were eventually had of these wing snapping beauties. Everyone could now see why I call them Lemon Meringues! A Yellow-bellied Flycatcher was seen and another Sulphur-bellied also showed well and a couple of Brown Jays were heard moving through..

Gill and I at the back had two Nightingale Wrens come across the path and both were rooting around in the leaf litter but even then they were incredibly difficult to actually watch. We emerged back into the upper gardens towards the end of the day where a Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush was singing from cover and Yellow-throated Toucans were beginning their sunset serenade and trying to outcompete the still singing Montazuma Oropendolas.

Back near the van there was a troop of Collared Aracaris high up in the pines where a Tooth-billed (Hepatic) Tanager was making sure that a male Summer knew that it was on its patch. This is the only spot I have seen this species in Costa Rica.

Summer Tanager

Somehow the day was at an end and we bumped our way back to Hotel Linda where the evening was made more interesting by the discovery that Pat’s Monty Python Black Knight ‘Tis but a scratch’ incident earlier in the day actually required professional medical attention which thankfully was available nearby. She spent the rest of the trip looking like she had had a run it with a very small shark but at least was able to continue!

The Pauraques started up and I put the moth trap on and called it a night.

Blue Eyed Birder

Tuesday, 14 April 2026

23rd March 2026 - Day 3 - Costa Rica for Bird's Wildlife & Nature

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