Costa Rica - Day 5

After the previous day’s epic boat birding, we did a bit of exploring around the natural lodge at Caño Negro and surrounding town. Chestnut-colored Woodpeckers at the lodge gave us some fantastic views, as well as Gray-headed Tanagers, Yellow-olive Flatbills, Black-crowned Tityra, White-collared Manakins, and more. Walking around the town, we got crushing views of an Olivaceous Piculet, Cinnamon Woodpeckers, Barred Antshrikes, and more. 

On our way out of the Caño Negro area, we had to drive past the pastures that had the Great Potoo and thick-knees the other day, and were glad to see that the Double-striped Thick-Knees were still there. We also had to go back out via the Entrada Los Chiles hotspot area, and we got even better, much more crushing views of the Jabiru from the other day. Continuing along, we stopped for good looks at a Laughing Falcon, a pond with an American Coot and Blue-winged Teal. After about an hour of driving, Jorge spotted a Snowy Cotinga bouncing from treetop to treetop crossing the road! There, we also got more good looks at Lesser Swallow-tailed Swifts and Crimson-fronted Parakeets. Not long after that, we hit the town of Boca Tapada, just outside of our lunch and afternoon birding spot, Laguna Lagarto Lodge. In Boca Tapada, we spotted our lifer King Vulture sitting on top of a dead tree below a large kettle of Black and Turkey Vultures. This was the first time I’d ever seen this, there was also a large quantity of Wood Storks kettling with the vultures, maybe 15 or so. 

Once at Laguna Lagarto, we spent a good amount of time working with Keel-billed Toucans in flight, and enjoying other common feeder birds fighting for bananas. A hybrid Baltimore x Bullock’s Oriole was quite nice to see, Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, Olive-backed Euphonias, and more kept us occupied while the toucans took their long breaks in adjacent trees. A nice surprise was getting to see multiple Great-green Macaws floating around the air around the lodge, and I was even able to get a photo of a macaw and King Vulture in the same shot, maybe the first time anyone’s ever done that? A quick walk around the grounds to hopefully spot one of the tiger herons we hadn’t seen yet gave us no tiger herons, but White-shouldered Tanagers, White-winged Becards, and two Scarlet Macaws escorted us back to the van as we drove a short distance to hop into the vulture blinds. The blind was kind of insane, a brand new blind experience for me. Usually in a blind, you have to be silent, and it’s relatively quiet outside the blind (for example, prairie chickens). This was not quiet. Black Vultures used the corrugated metal roof of the blind as a landing pad, and they are NOT quiet at landing. Every vulture that landed on this metal roof sounded like someone took a hammer to it and just bashed it as hard as they could. Once you got over the initial jumpscares of that, you then had to focus on the severed pig heads the mass of King and Black Vultures were ripping apart. Mud, pig parts and feathers flying all over the place, I’m quite glad that the blind was away from the frenzy quite a ways… After a while, we left the blind, and realized (much to dad’s excitement) that the forest floor was littered with blooming Hot Lips, a really cool looking group of tropical flowers. A Plain-brown Woodcreeper was our departing lifer from Laguna Lagarto. Jorge took us to a spot called Bosque de Hogar de Ancianos where we would hopefully hear a Central American Pygmy Owl. We sadly didn’t hear one, but did pick up Black-striped Woodcreeper, and got more looks at Stripe-throated Hermit, Pied Puffbird, Crowned Woodnymph, Brown-hooded Parrots, and Scarlet Macaws. I should also mention that the lunch we had at Laguna Lagarto was genuinely the best chicken I’ve ever had, so I’d highly recommend lunch there if you’re in the area ever. Our final destination for the day was The Nest Nature Center, but knowing us, we had to stop for birds along the road. 22 Baltimore Orioles in one tree, more Great-green Macaws, and a Lesser Nighthawk got us to Aguas Zarcas where The Nest is.