Costa Rica - Day 2 Part 2

After spending the morning at Carara National Park, Johan took us up the mountain to the Ti-Ko Restaurant. The restaurant's seating area is a large deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The view was amazing. A great advantage of having a local guide is that Johan knew all of the best, off the beaten path places to bird and eat!

We saw a few birds in the treetops, including a Pale-billed Woodpecker, which is closely related to the presumed extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker of North America. 

We also saw the "other" large Toucan in the area, the Yellow-throated Toucan. 

That afternoon we had a boat trip on the Tarcoles River. This is a popular area for group Crocodile tours, as the river is loaded with them. But ours was a private birding trip with just our captain Willkie, Johan and ourselves. 

We were thrilled to get looks at a Yellow-naped Parrot. These birds are critically endangered due to habitat loss as well as nest poaching for the pet trade. We saw several during our trip which Johan thought was a good sign. 

The birds of the tour were Kingfishers. We saw all five of the possible Costa Rican Kingfishers, which was a real treat. We were specifically looking for the smallest, the American Pygmy Kingfisher. 

After seeing the huge Ringed Kingfisher, the smaller Amazon Kingfisher, and the even smaller Green Kingfisher, we finally came upon a tiny American Pygmy Kingfisher. 

Ringed Kingfisher

Amazon Kingfisher

Green Kingfisher

American Pygmy Kingfisher

American Pygmy Kingfisher

Another target bird for the trip was the Mangrove Hummingbird. We'd never seen this bird before, probably because it feeds primarily on Mangrove blossoms along the rivers and coastlines. Mangrove blossoms are subtle, but pretty. 

This is where having a good guide and boatman is key. They knew that this was an area where we could see the Hummingbird, so we found an area with blooms and waited. Sure enough, a Mangrove Hummingbird was using this area to feed and we soon got good looks. This one is pretty plain as Hummingbirds go, but it was a lifer for us!

Mangrove Hummingbird

We also got to see a Common Black-Hawk swoop down and catch a catfish, then drag it to the bank to eat it. 

Common Black-Hawk

After the boat tour we did a little birding along the black sand beach, with Teri spotting this Roseate Spoonbill. We birded until sunset. 

Roseate Spoonbill

On the road back to the lodge Johan stopped to find us a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl which was cooperative enough to allow a picture to be taken.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

It had been a good day!

Next - Moving on to our second lodge.