Costa Rica Day 12

Surprise day! Jorge planned a big surprise day for us on the fly as we got almost everything we needed in the highlands, so we got up nice and early to go meet Leandro, a local birder and worker in the pineapple industry in the Buenos Aires region. We headed south of Savegre and the Talamanca Highlands and struck absolute gold on our way with a Tapir on the side of the road! Seriously one of the coolest animals I've ever seen. 

As it was New Year's Day, we were anxious to see what our first bird of the year would be, and as we were on a tight schedule, we couldn't try for something cool like Unspotted Saw-whet Owl or Bare-shanked Screech Owl. Once we got into town, as the sun was barely getting some light in the sky, I heard a Great-tailed Grackle screaming from somewhere outside the van, breaking my 4 year streak of American Robin being my first bird of the year. Not a very exciting first bird of 2025 though... Nevertheless, we stopped for breakfast on the go, met up with Leandro, and booked it to the first stop. Jorge told us what we were going to be trying for this day, and the first bird he mentioned I hadn't even ever heard of: the Ocellated Crake. One of the most locally scarce/rare species in the country, we were pretty excited to get to bird the grasslands of the pacific lowlands. As soon as we got out of the car we got a few lifers: Pale-breasted Spinetail, Black-hooded Antshrike, Little Tinamou, Smooth-billed Anis, Black-faced Antthrush, and Lesser Elaenia among others. We hopped up and behind a small hill and let Leandro work his magic for the crakes. Sure enough, a couple of them darted in and darted out after grabbing our offering of some worms, giving us some incredible views. It's seriously amazing how Leandro has figured out how to find these birds. 

After that pretty unbeatable experience with a bird that made the entire day, we still had a lot to find. We continued down the road and picked up the locally scarce Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch with ease. A little farther we made our last stop before turning around and picked up a pair of Elegant Euphonias, Fiery-billed Aracaris, and a large mob of Philadelphia Vireos. 

Back in town, we birded a scrubbier grassland and picked up Yellow-bellied Seedeaters, Isthmian Wrens, Yellow-olive Flatbill, a Scrub Greenlet, and a Streaked Saltator. A short drive after that stop wound us up birding a bit of forest bordering a river. Seriously good birding here. Orange-collared, Red-capped, and Velvety Manakins danced all over, Black-hooded Antshrikes and Dot-winged Antwrens zipped around in the understory, and a few locally rare Slate-colored Seedeaters gave us great looks. After a little bit, we were satisfied with what we had seen and turned back towards the van, and spotted not one, not two, not even three, but four Green Shrike Vireos below the canopy foraging! We hadn't seen Jorge so excited all trip long, so to see him and Leandro absolutely ecstatic at this experience made it so much better. 

You'd think we'd already have done a whole day's worth of birding at this point, but the day was only just about half over. We headed to the pineapple fields where there's interspersed protected forests to look for a few more special birds. As we searched for the star of the show, Gray-cowled Wood-Rails, Chestnut-backed Antbirds, Isthmian and Riverside Wrens, and a Giant Cowbird kept us occupied. Finally, Leandro whistled just right and it came in, one of the most striking birds I've ever seen, a male Rosy Thrush-Tanager came into the brush and sang his heart out to a nearby female. Unbelievable. The most incredible part was how close we were able to get to it as it sang, we were able to get some pretty spectacular photos of it. Celebrating that experience, we picked up a Streak-chested Antpitta on our walk out. One more nearby stop before saying goodbye to Leandro, we got good looks at a Common Pauraque, Great Antshrike, Dusky Antbird, Velvety Manakin, and and Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush. 

A little while later we made a stop in the rain in San Isidro de General to look for a very striking bird, the Turquoise Cotinga. After a bit of scanning, we found one! Yet another ridiculously crazy plumaged bird. A roadside yard produced a Long-billed Starthroat, and an early dinner gave Peter and I distant looks at what were very likely Red-fronted Parrolets, but we sadly didn't get good enough looks to call it. Just like that, we ran out of daylight and made it to the Tarcoles Birding Lodge fairly late. 

Trip report for day 12: https://ebird.org/tripreport/351643