Travelling from the Arenal area over to Tortuguero on the Caribbean Coast we stopped over for one night at La Quinta Sarapiqui and had a brief guided walk around the La Selva Biological Station. What can I say, La Quinta may not have been the best accommodation on the tour but the bird feeding table and tropical gardens were a birders paradise.
The lodge is actually an island of forest in what for Costa Rica is a fairly intensively farmed area but it is very close to the Sarapiqui River and a couple of huge national parks so the catchment area for birds is very big.
There to greet us when we arrived "El Yigüirro" the Clay-colored Thrush, the national bird of Costa Rica. Apparently chosen for its song at the start of the rainy season rather than its colourful appearance.
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| "El Yigüirro" the Clay-colored Thrush |
A group of seven or eight Collard Aracari landing on the feeders proved particularly challenging. With rain, low light and fast moving birds, I failed to get a single sharp picture. Fortunately for me one landed in a tree above the feeders where there was a bit more light.
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| Collared Aracari |
Exposure proved to be an ongoing problem whilst taking pictures in forested areas. At home I rarely move away from ISO 200-400, in Costa Rica I often ended up using ISO6400 and then hand holding at around 1/15 sec. You can get the exposure right for the bird and you have a good chance of getting a sharp picture but then any stray light coming through the forest canopy will totally burn out part of your picture.
More birds around the feeders
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| Golden-hooded Tanager |
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| Female Bullock's Oriole |
I may have misidentified the Bullock's Oriole. It looks right to me but my trusted copy of the Birds of Costa Rica says that these are restricted to the Pacific side of the mountain range, so they should not be at La Quinta. So possibly a Baltimore Oriole?
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| Crimson-collared Tanager |
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| Female Green Honeycreeper |
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| Male Green Honeycreeper |
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| Passerini's Tanager |
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| Female Passerini's Tanager |
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| Female Red-legged Honeycreeper |
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| Male Red-legged Honeycreeper in non-breeding plumage |
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| Black-cowled Oriole |
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| Red-throated Ant-Tanager |
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| Black-cheeked Woodpecker - cleared everything off the feeding station |
Our walk along a short track at La Selva Biological Station was again accompanied by dull conditions and rain showers but then it is a rain forest so it is only to be expected. As with the hanging bridges the birds were keeping a low profile but there were a few good species about.
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| Broad-billed Motmot |
This one was a bit of a surprise. I thought it was a Rufous Motmot when I was taking the picture. It was only afterwards that I noticed the blue chin. More of a surprise was the fact that the bird sat still, whilst our group of twenty walked past within 10 feet of it and with most stopping to take plenty of pictures.
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| Broad-billed Motmot |
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| Long-tailed Tyrant - a long way off and silhouetted against the sky but a great bird to see |
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| Slaty-tailed Trogon |
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| White-whiskered Puffbird |
Less than a day at this location. A Gray Hawk seen, a kingfisher over the ponds but not enough of a view to identify it. So much to see and so much missed. La Quinta is surrounded by fields and tropical forest and would have kept me busy for at least another day. The Sarapiqui River, La Selva and the national parks would have kept me busy for weeks.
Next Blog Tortuguero and the Caribbean coast.
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