Costa Rica 2024 - Day 2

Friday, January 19, 2024 

We met Johan in the hotel gardens at 5:45. It was just light enough to see birds. We picked up a bunch of common species quickly, like Great Kiskadee, Hoffman’s Woodpecker, Brown Jay and Clay-colored Thrush.

Johan had heard a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl earlier, so we set out to locate it. It was responding only sporadically to calls, but then we saw a group of birds mobbing a branch of a tree and sure enough that led us to the owl. These little owls prey on small birds, so when they find one in the daylight they try to harass it out of their area. The owl stayed hidden for a while, but finally perched out in the open. 

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

We headed in for the breakfast buffet at around 7:15, ate, and then left the hotel around 8:00.  We drove thru Heredia where there was a surprising amount of traffic and a back-up do to a minor accident, and then out toward Arenal.

We stopped at Cocora Cloud Forest at 10:00. This is a private property with a small restaurant, gift shop and some lodging. 

They maintain a hummingbird feeder set-up and that was the reason we’d stopped. 

Orchid

We immediately started seeing Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, Crowned Woodnymph, Green Hermits (unusual for them to be coming to feeders), Brown Violetear, and a Costa Rica endemic, the Coppery-headed Emerald. It was a nice set-up for viewing and photography. 

Coppery-headed Emerald

Crowned Woodnymph

Green Hermit

Green-crowned Brilliant

Brown Violetear

As I labelled the pictures, I am reminded of how few tropical hummingbirds actually have the word "hummingbird" in their name!

We also saw a few non-hummingbirds. 

Bananaquit

Blue-black Grosbeak

One of the workers there was interested in butterflies and moths, and showed us a pair of moths that he'd found on a nearby building. They were from the silk moth family, and adults like these live only a few days, only long enough to mate and lay eggs. He was going to take the eggs and raise the caterpillars. 

Automeris postalbida

We moved over to an area where some Heliconia were blooming, and where the staff had seen a White-tipped Sicklebill the previous day. We staked it out for about 30 minutes, getting a quick glimpse of it flying by but not stopping. We did watch a beautiful Coral Snake cross the path. We had a Purple-crowned Fairy feeding on some nearby flowers. These don’t use hummingbird feeders so it was a nice find. 

Coral Snake

Purple-crowned Fairy feeding on Heliconia

Next: San Luis Canopy