Day 2 (Continued) - 2017 Costa Rica Journel

After a couple of stops and starts we eventually arrived at the boat dock in Los Chiles for our Cano Negro tour.

The Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge is 25,000 acres near the border of Nicaragua along the Rio Frio River.  It was established in 1984.

Rio Frio

Our Boat

One of the first birds we saw was a Jabiru. This stork is the largest bird species in Central America and among the largest in the world. They are rare in Costa Rica, occurring only in Cano Negro and a nearby national park. We were lucky to get a glimpse of this one as it flew down the river and out of sight.

Jabiru

While we saw plenty of birds, it turns out that the high point of this trip was monkeys. Of the four monkey species present in Costa Rica, we got great looks at three of them.

Most common were the Mantled Howler Monkeys, They "roar" more than "howl", and we often woke up to the sound of troops roaring at each other across the jungle. The reddish colored hair on their backs gives them the "Mantled" part of their name, but it isn't always obvious. You can see just a hint of it in the photo below (click on the picture for a larger view).

Mantled Howler Monkey

We saw a couple of different troops of these monkeys, and some included mothers with babies.

Mantled Howler Monkey with baby

A special treat in the Cano Negro area is the presence of a rare orange color morph. Our guide told us that they are unique to this area and we were lucky to see one.

Mantled Howler Monkey (Orange morph)

Howler monkeys live in troops of 15 - 20 monkeys, and the young stay with their mothers for about a year before becoming independent. Troops include a mix of males and females, young and old. This orange monkey was very obviously a male!

Mantled Howler Monkey (Orange morph)

Later in our trip we came across a young White-faced Capuchin feeding near the edge of the river. They eat primarily leaves and other roughage, so there was no shortage of food!

White-faced Capuchin

We watched this youngster feed for about 10 minutes. He was very acrobatic, hanging from various branches and trees. A couple of times the branch would break, dropping him nearly into the water, but he always managed to catch something and hang on!

Just hanging out...

After we'd watched for a while a larger adult Capuchin approached the youngster, who looked a little surprised. We don't know if this was Mom, Dad, or just a watchful adult, but it didn't seem too pleased with our close proximity.

The adult gave us a display of teeth and we moved on.

White-faced Capuchin adult

The last monkeys we saw were Central American Spider Monkeys. They weigh about the same as the Howler Monkeys, but are have longer arms and legs and look sort of gangly. Spider Monkeys apparently break into small feeding groups during the day, and we only saw a couple, including this mother with her baby. 

Central American Spider Monkey - Mom with baby

Then it was off the boat and time for a delicious lunch.

After lunch it was back in the van for a very long drive to the hotel.  After a little birding off the deck, we had dinner and turned in early.

Next time:  Day 3 - Hiking the trails

Birds seen today:  63.
Monkeys: 3.

Great Curassow

Jabiru

Wood Stork

Neotropic Cormorant

Anhinga

Bare-throated Tiger Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron

Cattle Egret

Green Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron

White Ibis

Glossy Ibis

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Roadside Hawk

Black-necked Stilt

Northern Jacana

Spotted Sandpiper

Smooth-billed Ani

Groove-billed Ani

Squirrel Cuckoo

Great Potoo

Violet-headed Hummingbird

Rufus-tailed Hummingbird

Black-headed Trogon

Gartered Trogon

Ringed Kingfisher

Amazon Kingfisher

Green Kingfisher

Yellow-throated Toucan

Keel-billed Toucan

Black-cheeked Woodpecker

Crested Caracara

Laughing Falcon

Orange-chinned Parakeet

Olive-throated Parakeet

Common Tody-Flycatcher

Great Kiskadee

Tropical Kingbird

Mangrove Swallow

Clay-colored Thrush

Tropical Mockingbird

Tennessee Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Passerini’s Tanager

Blue-gray Tanager

Palm Tanager

Golden-hooded Tanager

Bay-headed Tanager

Silver-throated Tanager

Green Honeycreeper

Nicaraguan Seed-Finch

Bananaquit

Hepatic Tanager

Summer Tanager

Great-tailed Grackle

Nicaraguan Grackle

Montezuma Oropendola

Monkeys:

White-throated Capuchin

Central American Spider Monkey

Mantled Howler Monkey & Melanistic Howler Monkey

Nicaraguan Slider (turtle)
White-nosed Coati