BIRDING COSTA RICA: QUETZALS AND ENDEMICS
2010
Saturday March 27 to Sunday April 4
Guided by Gary Rosenberg
Price: $2600
For those also taking the Costa Rica: Caribbean Highlights tour, $200 can be deducted from the total price.
Short tour from Saturday to Sunday that visits the Talamanca Highlands and the Pacific Coast. Resplendent Quetzals and lots of montane specialties endemic to Costa Rica and Panama. Pacific lowlands with fantastic birding at Carara National Park, famous for its population of Scarlet Macaws. Beautiful mountain scenery. Boat trip on the Tarcoles River. Excellent accommodations. Wonderful friendly country with modern infrastructure. Easy to get to. Great introduction to Neotropical birding. Tour can be combined with our Costa Rica: Caribbean Highlights tour.
There are few countries in Central and South America that are as easy to get to, and as safe to travel in as Costa Rica. Less than three hours from Miami, Costa Rica offers the birder a combination of fantastic birdwatching and an introduction to the joys of Neotropical birds, while at the same time staying at very comfortable lodges and hotels in what is accepted as the most democratic country in the region. The scenery is stunning, and the birding even better! This short tour is designed to visit two main areas, first the Talamanca Highlands that span the entire southern portion of this small country, extending into Panama, and are home to a wide array of regional endemics – including the incredible Resplendent Quetzal, and second, the Pacific lowlands at Carara National Park, famous for their Scarlet Macaws, and one of the best and most-exciting birding locations in Central America. Our accommodations and food will be excellent throughout, and Costa Rica is so clean, one can drink the water everywhere!
We’ll begin the tour with a visit to lovely Tapanti National Park and continue up the Pan American Highway to Cerro de la Muerte and the San Gerardo de Dota area. Here we will stay in a beautiful mountain lodge with Resplendent Quetzals often breeding right on the property. Two nights here will insure multiple opportunities of seeing this unbelievable member of the Trogon family! The birding around the lodge will also be excellent, and we will surely see most of the regional endemics found in the mountains of Costa Rica and Panama, including a nice selection of hummingbirds coming to the feeders.
We’ll then travel to the Pacific lowlands for a four night stay near Carara National Park. This wonderful reserve is well-situated in the transition zone between the lush, wetter environments of southwest Costa Rica, and the very dry desert environments to the northwest. The result is an incredibly bird-rich environment, with more than 300 species possible within a very short distance. The forest trails at Carara are flat and easy to walk, and the birding there is some of the best tropical birding we have encountered – including Scarlet Macaws, five species of trogons, six species of wrens, two motmots, puffbirds, jacamars, great hummingbirds, and an amazing number of flycatchers. Our hotel has great birding right on the grounds.
For those interested in a longer trip, this tour can be combined with our Costa Rica: Caribbean Highlights tour.
