Costa Rica Part III: Catarata Del Toro and Braulio Carrillo National Park

Ok! Well, like usual, I'm doing an awful job at blogging this bird trip...but we all knew that's what would happen. You would think that being sequestered at home all the time now that I would be churning out posts at a rapid clip, but no! It turns having a pandemic unfold around me, while being trapped with a toddler who badly wants breaks from her parents and has practically ceased napping (which, for you nonbreeders out there, is a very bad thing) is not at all conducive to bird blogging. What have I been doing in my free moments while not parenting super hard, or, alternatively, in a catatonic state of despair? Well, among some of the more typical nonbirder things (catching up on stuff like Picard and Tiger King) I've been birding the shit out of my yard, which has been a good respite from world collapse. More on that another time.

To pick up back where we left off in the last post, in the afternoon we took a trip to Catarata Del Toro to see...well, what there was to see. I used the maps.me app to navigate for the entire trip, and while it was usually solid, it took us a very weird way up to the waterfall from Hotel Gavilan. Fortunately, this route took us to our only Red-breasted Meadowlarks of the trip and allowed for a Groove-billed Ani crush.

This private reserve offers some GERI BIRDING, and also a very large garden loaded with porterweed that you have to walk a ways to get to (porterweed is manna for a multitude of hummingbird species). The feeders here had Green-crowned Brilliants, a geri standard. This one, with the extensive white on the throat and underparts, is a female.

Facemelting Violet Sabrewings were present in good numbers.

Green Hermit is the other enormous hummingbird you can expect to find frequenting feeders at certain places.

The main target bird here was Sooty-faced Finch, a Costa Rica-Panama endemic. They are not reliable at many places in Costa Rica, but they are a known commodity here. I was STOKED to find one on a path after a relatively short time looking, and then confused to watch it fly up to a cluster of nanners/platanos and just go to town on fruit. The bird wasn't exactly confiding but we got some nice long looks at the sooty-faced fiend all the same. Another target bird people come here for is Black-bellied Hummingbird, which we saw as well, though we got better looks previously at the one at La Cinchona.

Bananaquit is another common geri bird, or Geri Bird if you prefer.

An Olive-striped Flycatcher dropped down for some nice eye-level looks for a moment. What can I tell you about Olive-striped Flycatchers? Pretty much nothing, though their name is helpfully descriptive at least.

We did not do the main waterfall trail, as it is steep and loud and presumably the most peopled, but there are some really good views of it elsewhere. It's a really good waterfall, highly recommended, it's not why we were there but it did not disappoint. The birding here was not fantastic for us but I'm sure it could have been if we were there in the morning instead of the afternoon, or if the weather hadn't been so dreary.

The next morning it was off to the Braulio Carrillo National Park area. The El Tapir garden, famous for its Snowcaps (but less so for potentially good birding trails also present), has had only intermittent access since last year and now has a huge metal gate in front of it and highway construction going on directly in front of that while we were there, so no joy on getting in that day and it was yet another Snowcapless trip to Costa Rica. Ouch though. Next time...I will not fail, and go look for them at Rancho Naturalista where they are notoriously easy.

But no worries, we went just another minute down the highway to the Braulio Carrillo trails. The Quebrada Gonzales ranger station was still closed but we had no problem getting onto the El Ceibo Trail, (on the west side of the highway) before paying our entrance fees and doing the other loop by the ranger station.

We had some flocks but none of the insane megaflocks or crazy tanager diversity that we experienced in 2012. As is common here, there were some slow stretches and a number of intriguing but extremely uncooperative birds. There were multiple Buff-throated Foliage-Gleaners though, even a couple cooperative ones like this one.

These swifts blew by at one point and I fired off a clip of docu-crushes...they were gone in just a few seconds and I pretty much forgot about these photos until recently. Now I know they were either White-chinned or Spot-fronted (hat tip to Pat for ID consultation)...both of which would be LIFE BIRDS. My money is heavily on White-chinned but I will let them remain a "slash"...life is truly pain. We did really poorly with swift viewing on this trip in general because we are bad at stuff apparently.

The coolest thing we found (Jen found), if you ask me, was this thing labelled an "oriole snake" on Jen's hilarious (but surprisingly useful) laminated Costa Rica wildlife foldout pamphlet thing that she always had on her. It was long as fuck! We were trying to get a look at some distant, aggravating antwren thing and Jen noticed this snake dripping down a tree trunk in the foreground.

Very good snake. Much length. Quite friendly. Photos don't do it justice. 

You can count on cheerful Buff-rumped Warblers to provide company on trails at many places in Costa Rica. If you are creeping along a trail hoping and praying to see an antpitta or tinamou or quail dove on the trail ahead of you, you will instead see tons of these.

Spider monkey was a lifer mammal. I have no idea how that is possible, because we saw them seemingly everywhere and didn't see a single one on the previous trip. They are good at climbing and stuff. They really do use their tails like another appendage, pretty cool to see in action.

I am not as enamored with monkeys as some people but their facial expressions are undeniably humanish and regularly hilarious.

It was so good to be in the warm embrace of manakins again. This is a male White-ruffed, looking snazzy.

I think that's it for this post. I did get Slaty Antwren and Plain Antvireos as lifers, though with disappointing looks at each. The birding was not as raging as it could be and being locked out of potential Snowcap was a kick in the nuts, but you can't win 'em every time can you? Fortunately we would get a huge birding win later that day, I'll get to that next time.

Costa Rica 2020 Part I: La Cinchona

Wow, we made it back just in time! Greetings from San Jose, California, which is now deep in the shadow of coronavirus. While things are increasingly tense here - and just now my daughter is screaming about a squirrel in the living room, which for some reason there actually is - I can at least say that the Costa Rica 2020 tour is in the bag, and it was brilliant. Joining me this time was the controversial Jacob Durrent, attention-seeking Flycatcher Jen, and the surprisingly dry-eyed but armadillo-adverse Stilt. I planned our route to visit some of the best inland areas north of San Jose (Costa Rica), and although we did not have time to get to all of them by any means it was GREAT SUCCESS. It's kind of daunting to think I have a duty to blog all of it but I can try!

We flew in to San Jose and immediately experienced our first logistical obstacle of the trip (the first actual obstacle was large and dumb pile of Envision Festival goers doing unnecessary yoga at our feet in LAX), which was getting our rental car from Hertz. The 4x4 I had reserved was not available and they tried to give me a sedan, which I napesed. After much waiting we were informed a 4x4 SUV was available and would be ready soon...then we were informed that it kept slipping into neutral by itself while in gear so that one was off the table. Finally we accepted an SUV that did not have 4x4 as I figured we would at least have good clearance to deal with shitty roads...this did work out fine, though it would not have if we had met with real rainy season weather. It was also a surprise to get in the car and find out it was a manual transmission, which I had not driven in about seven years. Luckily Jacob helped out with a lot of the driving and all the stalling I did when I drove was just funny for everybody (how embarrassing) instead of being catastrophic. The car was weak and grossly underpowered BUT our little Chery (that's right, not Chevy) did succeed in getting us everywhere we wanted to go.

Why did I tell you this rambling story of inconvenience that you almost surely don't care about? Because that is Geri's way, and we did our share of GERI BIRDING. In fact, almost this entire post is about Geri Birding!

Finally underway, we got to our first stop, the soda/mirador at La Cinchona. We had a great time here back in 2012 and it has only gotten better! Oh, I don't want that Silver-throated Tanager photo up at the top of this post to fool you...that photo was made possible by fruit. La Cinchona is all about GERI BIRDING (though the human food ain't bad either), and the geri was indeed top notch. Here is a Prong-billed Barbet/Black-headed Saltator combo.

Prong-billed Barbet is a weird bird. When you are the object of the barbet's smile, you aren't quite sure what to do with yourself.

Buff-throated Saltator, old friend. Trusty BTSA turned out to be the most common saltator of the trip.

And Scarlet-rumped Tanager was by far the most abundant tanager of the trip. Better post an obligatory photo now!

This bird, on the other hand, was gripping. My first lifer of the trip was this plump little crippler, Buff-fronted Quail-Dove. They have become very reliable at La Cinchona and did not disappoint during our visit. They weren't exactly confiding but we got some great looks. I needed some more quail-doves in my life and now I should be set for a while. As expected, these were the only ones of the trip and (sadly) the only quail-doves of any species we actually laid eyes on. Much unfinished quail-dove business have I.

Another crucial target bird here was the facemelting/ridiculous Red-headed Barbet, which we also did not see anywhere else. This is the first male I have ever seen and it was absolutely stunning. The Geri Gods smiled upon us that afternoon.

I think the first time I saw Violet Sabrewings was here in 2012. As it was back then, having these giant glowing hummingbirds whiz by inches away is great but not exactly comforting.

Black-bellied Hummingbird was lifer #2 for yours truly. These are only really reliable at a handful of sites so it was a pleasant surprise to have this single bird at our very first stop. Neither drab nor flamboyantly crippling, it's just a very nice hummingbird. Pura vida.

Both the bane and the bedrock of many cloud forest mixed flocks, Common Chlorospingus dropped in for some of the delicious Geri action.

The Northern Emerald Toucanets here are probably some of the most photographed birds south of the Rio Grande. Why? Because they get their geri on within a few feet of you and they are crushable by cell phone, if that's what one wished to do. They also happen to be terrific.

Crimson-collared Tanager is an arresting bird.

And the same case could be made for Blue-gray Tanager, but they are so freaking common it can be difficult to give them the credit they deserve.

Like the Blue-gray Tanager, Palm Tanagers struggle to be looked at. Whenever a Palm Tanager is in sight, there is invariably something more interesting to look at as well. Such is life for the Palm Tanager.

As expected in February, we also had a pleasant mix of neotropic migrants mixing in with the resident locals. Summer Tanager wishes it could participate in more geri birding on its migration routes.

This gluttonous Baltimore Oriole is acting like its never had a banana before. It's practically mantling the poor defenseless fruit.

I call this portrait "Tennessee Warbler With Banana".

Yes, I will even post a photo of the dreaded Clay-colored Thrush. They are brown. And very common. But not only is this a picture of a Clay-colored Thrush, it is a picture of a banana. This one is titled "Banana with Clay-colored Thrush".

Foreboding Black Guans were getting in on the feeder action too. You would think that such a large bird would not be attempting to feed on the same thing as a diminutive Tennessee Warbler, but you would be wrong.

Some other roadside stops on the way to Hotel Gavilan produced birds like Bat Falcon (above), Double-toothed Kite and Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift.

That will do it for the first post! Much more to come. And if you are wondering, no, the squirrel is not still in the house.

Geri Birding At It's Best: More From La Cinchona

This Emerald Toucanet gave point-blank, facemelting views at La Cinchona...after this day, things have never been the same.

Geriatric birding first really came to light some years ago in Southeast Arizona. As birders who have visited may know, the area is ridden with people who willingly invite birders into their yards and property to watch the birds attracted to their feeders. In fact, these generous folks often provide the best places to see certain species in the entire country, i.e. White-eared Hummingbird and Berylline Hummingbird in Miller Canyon, Lucifer Hummingbird in Ash Canyon, etc. The birding at these sites is practically effortless; you just plop down in a chair and watch the bird show unfold at the feeders in front of you.

For reasons that I probably do not need to explain to you, many denizens of these publicly-accessible feeding stations are quite elderly, and thus the phrase "gereatric birding" was born. It was immediately abbreviated to "geri birding"...I'm not sure who coined the term originally, probably the one they call "Stilt". Or maybe it was the "Cassowary"?

I have strong feelings for this bird. What an amazing bill/face pattern.

As Red Phalarope Man has mentioned in the past, a study has already demonstrated Emerald Toucanet to actually consist of multiple species. One day, the AOU will likely accept the splits, and this Costa Rica bird will be (universally) known as Blue-throated Toucanet.

Geri birding is, of course, awesome. You just sit there and wrack up the birds, and are often provided with fantastic opportunities to crush them. While the geri birding scene in southeast AZ may be very good, Costa Rican geri birding is downright insane. Costa Rican geri birding spots are often just places with simple fruit feeders or a set of hummingbird feeders, but the La Cinchona Mirador (northeast of Volcan Poas) provides both. The original La Cinchona was destroyed by an earthquake several years ago, but this smaller-scale, newer version did not fail to completely melt my face off. The birding was incredible...our group of nerds all wracked up multiple lifer hummingbirds, including the mesmerizing Green Thorntail, which I failed to get a picture of. I highly recommend stopping by if you are in the area, the food is good too!

In case you missed it, here is the first post from La Cinchona.

Next up from Costa Rica...Volcan Poas!

Prong-billed Barbet was another great bird that came in to the fruit feeders. They seemed to move around rather slowly, and with great deliberation, unlike the one Red-headed Barbet I saw on the trip that was ravaging primary rainforest as part of a massive mixed flock.

As you can see, Prong-billed Barbets (and, allegedly, Red-headed) are partial to fruit feeders. What I won't tell you is how long I was watching this bird for, thinking it was an entirely different (and unrelated) species.

Green-crowned Brilliant really left its mark on me. Not only a large hummingbird, but one that looks stretched out as well...look how long its neck is!

This species lives up to its name. The iridescence the male can put off was previously unfathomable to me...if I found out the bird was radioactive, I would not be surprised. That's a female on the right side of the feeder.

Check out this male Coppery-headed Emerald...what a bird. I dig the dark teardrop around its eye.

This is one of those birds that, when seen at close range and in the right light, just completely resets your brain. For just a moment, the rest of the world does not exist. All of reality is comprised of a hummingbird.

White-bellied Mountain-Gem. Not the most glamorous species, but I like how this image came out. If you ever want to test your patience, try photographing hummingbirds mid-flight without a feeder anywhere in the frame. Not easy!

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is familiar to anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes birding in most of Costa Rica. With the exception of high elevation sites, they are the commonest hummingbird almost everywhere you go.

Violet Sabrewing. A hulking beast of a hummingbird, a monument to facemelt. The awesome mass this bird possesses makes me wonder how the laws of physics allow this bird to still function in the form of a hummingbird...no doubt, it was a gruesome and bloody accident that led to this bird being dubbed "sabrewing".