Cerro Lodge: Hella Recommended

What's better than seeing wild Scarlet Macaws? Seeing them while you are eating breakfast.

One of the things I tell birders who are planning their first Costa Rica trip is to stay at the lodges that cater to birders, at least sometimes. Are some of them astronomically expensive? Yes (I did not visit any of those). Are a lot of them reasonably priced? Definitely. Will they offer great birding/geri birding/crushing opportunities? You know this.

One such place is Cerro Lodge, just north of Tarcoles and Carara National Park, both of which are very popular birding destinations. El Cerro has very clean and comfortable rooms, a pool, fruit feeders, decent food, and good birding on and near the property...what more could you ask for?

The Scarlet Macaws completely blew me away. Absolutely crippling. I don't care how many I've seen in zoos or as pets, the real deal is awesome. These are humongous, deafeningly loud birds. Scarlet Macaws are very common around Cerro Lodge, I can't imagine birding the area for a day and not seeing them.

Many other parrots and parakeets can be found in the area of course, although more often than not you will find yourself having to identify them as they fly by. I think these are Red-lored Parrots.

Nutting's Flycatcher is one of a number of "dry forest" species found at El Cerro. With rumors of this bird being split in the future, I'm not sure what subspecies this bird belongs to (apparently both are in Costa Rica).

One of the main benefits of birding the Carara National Park area is that it sits right on the edge of the dry forests to the north, wet lowland forests to the south, and mangroves along the Tarcoles River...all of this creates a soup of amazing birding. While hanging out around Cerro, bird along the road back towards the highway and down into grassy ranchland to the southwest, where the road dead ends. And of course, you will want to bird legendary Carara National Park and near the mouth of the Tarcoles River. Many birders do a guided boat ride along the river for waterbirds and mangrove specialties.

I should also mention that if you look to the forest west of the lodge early in the morning, it is possible to see Yellow-billed Cotinga (!!!) in the forest canopy, which we managed to see at great distance. It is a distant speck to be sure, but a highly sought-after speck. You'll need a scope though.

Yellow-throated Vireo is one of a number of neotropical migrants that spend the winter in the area. As a westerner, I was pretty stoked to connect with these birds down south.

Summer Tanager is one of the most abundant North American migrants that winter in Costa Rica; you can find them just about anywhere. Like most tanager species in the country, they are enthusiastic visitors of fruit feeders.

Gotta post another Fiery-billed Aracari pic: we had better looks at this bird at El Cerro than anywhere else.

Rufous-naped Wren is one of the more conspicuous birds at the lodge; this one has a beakful of nest material. Obvi.

Non-traditional Turqoise-browed Motmot shot. This species is one of the most crippling birds I have ever seen...in sunlight, that is.

I'm not entirely sure what this thing is. Steely-vented Hummingbird? I don't have my Costa Rica field guide available...how embarrassing. Among other hummingbirds at El Cerro were Cinnamon, Ruby-throated and Blue-throated Goldentail.

Frog buddy clinging to the wall of one of the cabinas.

Just down the highway from Cerro Lodge is the Tarcoles River, and the famous bridge that runs over it. Huge crowds of people gather here in order to watch the Northern Jacanas American Crocodiles that congregate directly beneath the bridge.

How many crocodiles lurk under the bridge? Hella.

They are truly affectionate creatures. The bridge is also a good place to scan for shorebirds, wading birds, whistling-ducks, kingfishers and raptors, but you will have to put up with throngs of annoying people unless you get there early.

What's going on here? No clue. Pretty sure I was just drinking coffee at that point, not cuba libres. The humidity gets to you down there. These are some of the rooms at Cerro Lodge, with good habitat right outside the front door.

Some other birds we had at the lodge and along the access road include Orange-fronted Parakeet, Yellow-naped Parrot, Lesser Nighthawk, Blue Grosbeak, Prothonotary Warbler, Purple Gallinule, Southern Lapwing, Streak-backed Oriole, Streaked Flycatcher, Stripe-headed Sparrow...not to mention the owls. If you plan to bird the area, this is the place to stay as far as I'm concerned.

PS the day we checked out, Frank realized hours later that he had left his binoculars behind...they were still there when we made it back later that night. Good people.

To The Coast: Hwy 34 to Cerro Lodge

After birding Talari Mountain Lodge, we headed toward our next planned destination, El Cerro Lodge near Tarcoles, on the west coast. The drive took us from San Isidro west to Hwy 34, which we took north all the way to Tarcoles. The climate reached new levels of heat and humidity, even though it was the dry season on the Pacific Slope. This was virgin birding territory, and we all ran high fevers...we were sick with birdlust. Of course, it was very difficult to not bird on the way, and we couldn't help but pull over a few times. A random roadside stop to look at some Scissor-tailed Flycatchers south of Manuel San Antonio led to a whole glut of birds, including Mangrove Cuckoos!

Having missed them on previous Florida trips, I was more than happy to get these exceedingly cooperative birds as lifers. Oddly, we were neither next to mangroves or water, although we were probably pretty close to the coast.

While looking at Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Mangrove Cuckoos, multiple flocks of Crimson-fronted Parakeets noisily cruised by.

While trying (and failing) to take in all the new birds popping up left and right, I saw something that looked vaguely like a blotchy white pigeon flying towards us....of course it wasn't a pigeon, it was a fucking PEARL KITE! It was tiny! And on top of that, it was carrying a Chestnut-sided Warbler that it had just slain!

The kite sat above us for a while, contentedly ripping chunks of feather's out of the warblers neck.

Eventually it took flight, warbler still in talons.

As you can see, the kite isn't much larger than a Tropical Kingbird, and really does look sort of like a pigeon.

After wracking up a bunch of unanticipated lifers, we attempted to do a quick stop at Manuel Antonio National Park...I cannot understate what a huge mistake this was. Talk about a clusterfuck! So many people! So many Europeans! None of us were quite prepared for it.  We did get a few trip birds...the sandy spit behind us in Quepos was covered with Franklin's Gulls, which unexpectedly greatly outnumbered the Laughing Gulls there. Anyways, here is Frank, Stilt, Dipper Dan and Seagull Steve looking rad/shitty.

Under cover of darkness, eventually we left the crowds behind and figured out how to get to Cerro Lodge, where we would be spending the next several nights. Along the entrance road were a number of Parauques.

Our muchacho "Mancho" let us through the security gate and set us up for the night. He was difficult to communicate with, and seemed to mumble a lot...but after a little while lurking in the darkness of the parking lot, he asked if we wanted to see a bujo...and holy shit, what a look! I guess the lodge is well-known for its pair of Black-and-white Owls that seem to have no fear of people whatsoever, thus the brutal crush you see above.

I think its safe to say that whenever you are staying at a birder-friendly lodge in CR, it's worth asking if they have any owls that live on the grounds that are easy to see...I believe Cerro has some confiding Pacific Screech-Owls as well, but we didn't luck out on them, although we later had Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl (from the pool!).

As you can guess, we were pretty stoked to wake up and bird the grounds the next morning. At daybreak I was already lifering new hummingbirds, and it felt great. The fruit feeders next to the veranda had a flock of Fiery-billed Aracaris ravaging shit.

What a crippler.

The birder's guide we were using claimed all of the Melanerpes woodpeckers in the area are hybrids, but I'm not sure if that is entirely substantiated or not...so here is a bird that looks like a Hoffman's Woodpecker but may or may not have some Red-crowned Woodpecker genes (it does look like there is some pink in that nape).

I think I'll leave off here...stay tuned for more from Cerro Lodge and Carara National Park, where the great birds never stop.