Costa Rica 2024 - Day 4

Sunday, January 21, 2024

We met Johan at 5:45 and headed directly for a forest trail. The day was drizzly and overcast, and we were surprised at how little light there was. But we pressed on, eventually seeing some good birds on the gloomy trail, including lifers Middle-American Leaftosser and Chiriqui Quail-Dove. 

Middle-American Leaftosser

As we continued birding it began to rain. This would be the theme for the day. We headed back to the lodge, and ate breakfast at 8:45, Americano for Teri and Huevos Rancheros for me. 

After breakfast we drove to “Papa’s Place”, a nearby private home and garden in La Fortuna. Gerald and Priscilla are an entrepreneurial couple that run a variety of tours and classes, and have only recently opened their home to birders. It turns out that we would see Gerald each of the next two days leading bird tours away from his home. They have a cute little dog that liked to be petted. 

They have a very nice feeder set-up with good perches for photography, and some nice surrounding acreage for forest birds. The feeders were hopping with various tanagers, euphonias, three toucan species, woodpeckers, etc. Not to mention larger birds like guans and chachalacas. 

Collared Aracari

Keel-billed Toucan (the Fruit Loops bird!)

Yellow-throated Toucan

Crested Guan

In some of the Tanager and Euphonia species the males and females look very different. Other than the same bluish bill, the Scarlet-rumped Tanagers look completely different. 

Scarlet-rumped Tanager - female

Scarlet-rumped Tanager - male

Yellow-throated Euphonia - male

Yellow-throated Euphonia - female

The difference in the Honeycreepers may not be as dramatic, but they are different as well. 

Green Honeycreeper - female

Green Honeycreeper - male

In some Tanager species the male and female are indistinguishable, at least by us! 

Golden-hooded Tanager

Palm Tanager

Once we’d had our fill of the feeders we walked up into a pasture with scattered trees and a forest edge. We saw five different species of woodpecker, including the scarce Cinnamon and Rufous-winged Woodpeckers. We also saw a White-fronted Nunbird, another hard to find species. 

Cinnamon Woodpecker

Rufous-winged Woodpecker 

White-fronted Nunbird

We returned to the house and were served a traditional Costa Rican lunch prepared by Priscilla, her mother, and a visiting niece. We enjoyed chicken, rice, beans, squash, and fried plantain. All were delicious. We had tamarind juice to drink and a simple sweetened pineapple dessert. It was a fine way to end the morning.

Our hosts in the background

After saying goodbye to Gerald and Priscilla we headed out to Peninsula Road, which runs along a peninsula jutting out into Lake Arenal. It was a rough and rocky road and we came across someone who had broken the suspension on their vehicle!  We spent a lot of time on the road edge calling for a Keel-billed Motmot, but didn’t have any luck. We were really dealing with start-and-stop showers at this point, so were using our travel umbrellas quite a lot. Birding isn’t as enjoyable in the rain, but we hung in there!

Red-lored Parrot eating flowers 

White-throated Magpie-Jay

We made a couple of stops on our way back to Arenal Observatory Lodge, where the big find was a Green-fronted Lancebill, a difficult to find hummingbird that inhabits stream sides. 

Green-fronted Lancebill

It had been a gray, soggy day, but we'd seen a lot of birds and enjoyed our time at Papa's place. 

Next - Moving to Caño Negro