The "Birding the Edges" tours that we run there take birders to less-traveled parts of the country. Of course, as always, you can find a lot more info about the tour here.
After arriving and looking out from the room balcony, it was hard not to contrast where I just came from with what I was seeing:
Further exploration of the back gardens yielded a few gaudy avian prizes like this LESSON'S MOTMOT:
One of the main targets in central Costa Rica is the now-endemic CABANIS'S GROUND-SPARROW which I found nicely near the hotel:
The Edges Part 1 tour was quite good for hummingbirds and we tallied about 30 different species. Included was this WHITE-THROATED MOUNTAIN-GEM:
This is a MANGROVE HUMMINGBIRD and it's another species that's only found in Costa Rica. As you can see, we saw it quite nicely!
This charming hummingbird is a CHARMING HUMMINGBIRD at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge:
As is typical with much of the Neotropics, one can expect a fun variety of tanagers and included in that list was the aptly-named SILVER-THROATED TANAGER:
And although this stunner is called a GREEN HONEYCREEPER, it's also a tanager:
Nearly endemic to Costa Rica, one of the tougher species to find in the country is the COSTA RICAN BRUSHFINCH. We were sweating it until, finally, we found a couple!
A lot of birders really like the trogons. This is a COLLARED TROGON:
And who doesn't like a GREEN HERON when they pose so nicely?
Anyway, Edges Part I was a success and I think we all enjoyed our time exploring the southern reaches of the country. I'll leave you with this view to help melt your frozen winter blues:
