Blue Eyed Birder: 31st March 2026 - Day 11 - Costa Rica for Bird's Wildlife & Nature

The same storm system seemed to be sat over the hills to the south all night and gently rumbled away and the lightening was still flickering away as I made my way up to the Lodge breakfast viewpoint.

I have not tinkered with this in any way!

The selection of Parrots performed their morning fly by and the Striped Cuckoo was singing away. Ho hum…We scanned the bare snags and amazingly, there he was sat at the top in the first rays of the day singing his mournful two note song. I was particularly happy. Twenty minutes of singing, preening and stretching later he dropped back down and into the jungle.

Striped Cuckoo - Garry Barker

Lesser Nighthawks hunted and the Pauraque still sung while Black-headed Trogons, both Tityras, TB Motmots, White-lored Gnatcatchers and a stunning male Scarlet Tanager were repast companions. Cinnamon and Ruby-throated Hummers were on the scant Verbena blooms and Stripe-headed Sparrows put on quite a show with Rufous-backed Wrens as foraging buddies.

Turquoise- browed Motmot

Stripe-headed Sparrow

The Kingbirds were once again moving inland and east and amongst them were several Streaked Flys and a Great Crested Fly. The White-faced Capuchins were in a rambunctious mood with lots of feisty shouting and thrashing of branches.

White-faced Capuchins - 'nana time

The drive our revealed both the sheltering Pacific Screech Owls and Double-striped Thick-knees – not bad for drive by birds!

We dropped down into Tarcoles itself for a look around the mangroves that form a buffer between the properties and the swamp. It was very warm already and something spooked hundreds of Magnificent Frigatebirds which powered towards the coast before drifting back inland in effortless circles.

Magnificent Frigatebirds

Magnificent Frigatebird

Hummingbirds were focused around one very large flowering tree (in fact most of our birding was centred there) and we found Mangrove, Cinnamon, Rufous-tailed, Blue-vented and the Pacific form of Scaly-breasted. At least two Ferruginous Pygmy Owls were in there too and they attracted the attention of Rose-throated Becards, Streaked, Brown-crested and Dusky-capped Flycatchers as well as White-browed Gnatcatchers, Tennessee and Yellow Warblers.

Shrimp Plant

Streaked Flycatcher

Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers came and went and an Olivaceous Piculet gave excellent views too – only the second time I have seen one of these. Down on the ground there were Northern Waterthrushes and Rufous-backed Wrens and a singing Rufous-browed Peppershrike did a strange thing and actually popped out and showed itself a couple of times. I think it took me three trips to see one in CR.

Olivaceous Piculet

Rufous-backed Wren

Parakeets were moving around and the local SA Scarlet Macaws descended for their breakfast while a Common Black Hawk sat quietly in the same tree and waited for his meal to come within striking distance.

SA Scarlet Macaw

Common Black Hawk

Eyes to the skies gave us a low Osprey and two Plumbeous Kites with the gingery panels shining with the light from below.

Mangrove Swallow

From here we hit the Guacimo Road. As ever it was super hot and dusty but our stops were incredibly rewarding. A randomly calling Ferruginous Pygmy Owl drew a crowd of angry locals and I am never quite sure why they often make noise in the daytime! Anyway, this little chap helped us out with both White-lored and White-browed Gnatcatchers, Scrub Euphonias, Blue and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, a Yellow-throated Vireo and Banded Wrens which dawned on me that I had not seen before! Olive Sparrows showed unusually well in the company of far chunkier Stripe-headed Sparrows. A Nutting’s Flycatcher perched up briefly but I was too slow to get people on it.

Flushed with this success we headed down to the river bridge and shade of the tall trees. A Grey-crowned Yellowthroat scolded us as we got out and a roving canopy flock gave us a selection of Flycatchers with Greenish Elaenia, Northern Tropical Pewee, Yellow-bellied Fly and Great Crested Fly along with Philadelphia and Yellow-green Vireos and Yellow and Chestnut-sided Warblers.

Sci-fi Manakins whizzed and whirred and we got excellent views of a couple of immaculate males with aptly long tails. It was one of those watch and enjoy rather than try to take a dark and dingy pictures. They are one of my favourites. A Northern Bentbill sung (if you can call ‘wishhhhhooooo’ a song) and briefly perched up – a weird little Flycatcher.

Long-tailed Manakin

Bogging at a Bentbill - Gill Raundle

A pair of Cabanis’s Wrens were foraging low down and actually showed vey well with a little patience and a Black-headed Trogon appeared in the very same tree as I saw my very first back in 2020 – in fact it was my first of any species back then.

Black-headed Trogon

Lunch called us before a much needed siesta from the heat back at the Tarcoles Lodge. Even I had a little down time before being distracted by the confusing Red-crowned and Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers (I think there were hybrids too) along with Yellow-throated and Scrub Euphonias, Summer Tanagers and the Vireos once again.

Yellow-throated Euphonia

Turquoise- browed Motmot

Great Kiskadee

Baltimore Oriole

Turquoise- browed Motmot

Suitably recovered, we pottered back down for our evening ride on the Tarcoles River. It was excellent and we had the river to ourselves. We encountered the usual near complete selection of heronry things including a Yellow-crowned Night Herons, White Ibis and bald pate Roseate Spoonbills but it was the immature Reddish Egret that was the biggest surprise as this is a scarce CR bird.

Green Heron

Little Blue Heron

Green Heron

Snowy Egret

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Great Blue Heron

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Reddish Egret

Roseate Spoonbill

White Ibis

Yellow-crowned Night Heron - Tim Wilson

Roseate Spoonbill - Tim Wilson

Finding Collared Plovers was the priority wader species and we located a pair on a sandbank along with Grey Plovers, Southern Lapwings and Black-necked Stilts. Several Hudsonian Whimbrels were found perching on big snags in the river where Red-eared Terrapins basked and Ringed, Amazon and Green Kingfishers hunted. Central American Crocodiles cruised by but there were none hauled out this time but we did see a couple of the well known monsters including El General – the biggest and most lumpy of them all.

Hudsonian Whimbrel

Collared Plover

Green Kingfisher

Ringed Kingfisher

Red-eared Terrapin

Central American Crocodile

Central American Crocodile - El General

Central American Crocodile

Some shallow muddy areas attracted Semipalmated Plovers along with a few Ruddy Turnstones and a good number of Semipalmated Sandpipers amongst which we found Least and Western Sandpipers. As we headed into the Mangrove channels the expected flocks of flickering Spotted Sandpipers began to appear especially as they headed off to their favoured roosts sites. One or two were already sporting some breeding pointillism.

Semipalmated Sandpipers

Least Sandpiper

Semipalmated Plover

Spotted Sandpiper

Striped Cuckoos sung and in the grassy areas we picked up the Pacific black and white Variable Seedeaters along with Morelet’s and the hefty non-native Tricoloured Munias while the Mangroves gave us Cherrie’s Scarlet Rumped Tanagers, Northern Waterthrushes and three much sought after specialities with Panamanian Flycatcher, Mangrove Warbler and Mangrove Vireo. Unusually there were no Prothonotary Warblers.

Brown Basilisk

Tricoloured Munia

Both Caracaras were seen along with Ospreys and Black Hawks and as the light fell the Lesser Nighthawks came out with many small bats and a couple of dashing Bat Falcons.

Osprey

Yellow-headed Caracara

As we neared the river mouth all the terns and gulls had been spooked by some walkers, and a squadron of silhouetted Brown Pelicans followed us back to the pontoon as the sun finally dipped after another long but fruitful day.