Carara Part III: The Pitta Incident

Turquoise-browed Motmot. Sweet dreams are made of these. Tarcoles, Costa Rica.

Finally! The last installment from Carara National Park and Tarcoles. It's been a long-time coming...we can now let go and move on to the next part of the trip...but that's for next time. For now, its a mixed bag of crushes, the obligatory crap pics of cool birds in a rainforest, and the first public detailing of THE PITTA INCIDENT.

The first few of these you see will really cripple you. They belong in that upper echelon of bird that make you doubt everything you know and hold dear when you see them. Tarcoles, Costa Rica.

One of my favorite Psittacid experiences of the trip (aside from the Scarlet Macaws) was with this roadside flock of Orange-fronted Parakeets, bucolically chewing on flower pedals. Amazingly, Pat had a male Yellow-billed Cotinga in these same trees the same day! Photographed near the Cerro Lodge, Tarcoles, Costa Rica.

Nom nom nom nom. Nom. I dig the head pattern of these birds.

Why hello Cocoa Woodcreeper, what a stout bill you have. Photographed in Carara National Park, Costa Rica.

For our second day of birding Carara, we met up with Pat O'Donnell, the great ex-pat birder and guide who has excellent content on his Costa Rica bird blog right here. I can't imagine going back to Costa Rica without spending a lot of time researching Pat's posts, as he is constantly reporting on new birding spots and updates on areas that draw a lot of birders. If you need a guide, he's your man.

Unlike us four idiots, Pat knows pretty much all the local birds by ear, so he was pointing out all sorts of things we would never have recognized. As we walked the trail system closer to the visitor center (highly recommended, don't just do the "river trail"), he heard a Streak-chested Antpitta calling. None of us had seen any sort of pitta before, so we were stoked. He whistled the bird in....and we were all able to lay eyes on this fantastic lifer. After a couple minutes it moved back into the underbrush. There was much joy and merriment...until I saw Stilt.

Stilt had not seen the bird, and it took me a few moments to realize that she was crying. I couldn't believe it! It was amazing! She was uncontrollably sobbing because she had missed a life bird. While feeling bad for her, I was also savoring the moment of just having gripped off someone so badly that they were in tears. She asked me to not blog about it, but seeing as it has been over a year...I am blogging about it. Has anyone else ever seen anything like this?

My one attempt at documenting The Pitta Incident. Don't worry, after Stilt pulled herself together she eventually got to see the pitta.

Here is a Black-throated Trogon, which took over a year to identify from this photo. In shitty light, they can look remarkably similar to Gartered (Violacious) Trogon; note the white eyering and slightly different tail pattern. Carara National Park.

I somehow managed to not crush this Great Tinamou that we ran into a couple times. Probably because I was too busy soaking it in with my eyes. Carara National Park.

Fiery-billed Aracari, forged in the fires of facemelt. Photographed at Cerro Lodge.

The Tarcoles area is one of the relatively few parts of country oft-visited by foreign birders where there is a nice diversity of waterbirds. This cooperative Wood Stork lurked next to the road just west of town.

What a face. What a bill. What a neck. What a....helmet.

Magnificent Frigatebirds are abundant in the area. I dislike living in a place where I don't see frigatebirds at any moment I decide to look up. Photographed at the Tarcoles River Mouth.

Double-striped Thick-knee!!!! How bizarre. Photographed on a road I don't remember near a town I don't remember near La Ensenada Wildlife Refuge.

After we left the wonders of Carara behind, we made our way northward to La Ensenada Wildlife Refuge to try to pick up some additional North Pacific Slope species. Well once we were almost there, it turned out a certain "Frank" had left his binoculars over two hours away back at El Cerro Lodge. We were all devastated...but brave Frank had the courage to keep on birding, even without binoculars. This turned out to be an excellent decision, as we managed to get a lot of good birds and a number of lifers all around...birds like Long-tailed Mannikin, Plain-capped Starthroat, Crested Bobwhite, White-fronted Parrot, White-throated Magpie-Jay, and Three-wattled Bellbirds (heard only, but there seemed to be many). Unfortunately, my camera battery died and I was too giddy on birds to realize I had a fucking car charger for the battery with me in the car...and so I missed countless crushes of Hook-billed Kites, Streak-backed Orioles, etc. One of the biggest birding fails of my life. I definitely want to return to La Ensenada again and give it the thorough bush-flogging it deserves.

On the flip side, El Cerro had Frank's binos waiting for him when we returned that night.

This was one of my main target birds for the trip, which I thought we dipped on once we left the lush pastures of Tarcoles behind. I still struggle to make sense of the proportions of these birds. Great success!

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.

Facemelting X 100

Fiery-billed Aracari. I am going to be at a loss for captions for a lot of these Costa Rica birds, since most of them are new. I can only use the term "facemelting" so many times in a blog post. Photographed at Cerro Lodge, near Tarcoles.

Back from the static-laden realms of cyber-torpor, BB&B is happy to announce its return to life after 3 weeks. The Birdosphere, I have been told, has been in complete shambles in 2013 so far, and it is time that this blog rears its ugly head (complete with thick-rimmed nerd glasses) before the birding community goes completely out of control and spirals off into an even dorkier abyss.

Costa Rica just happened to me for the first time. As it was my first time birding south of Mexico, shit got pretty intense. On a daily basis we hit mixed flocks so large and bizarre that the only way we could acknowledge them properly was by gasping something like "Oh Jesus" and "It's happening again".

I managed to come back with all of my optics and photographs (although, more mysteriously, without pants), so I am leaving you with no choice but to hear tales of shed blood and tears, hundreds of life birds, and misidentifications so bad that they are bound to take some of our first-borne children down to a lower caste. See you soon.

A male Passerini's Tanager, one of the most common birds in the Carribean lowlands. I assume they sit like this to seduce lady-tanagers and ward off evil spirits. Photographed at Hotel Gavilan Rio Sarapiqui.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is by far the commonest hummingbird in Costa Rica. Although they are great-looking birds, it is hard not to hate them since they aggressively drive off practically every other hummingbird they come in contact with. At a couple sites, with great satisfaction we watched them lose duel after duel with the dreaded Violet Sabrewings, which are about the size of crows*. Photographed at Sarapiqui Eco-Observatory.

* = I made that crow part up, don't worry about it.