Please note: This itinerary is sometimes run in a different order than shown here.

 

Day 1: Arrival in San José

The tour begins this evening with dinner. After arrival in Costa Rica’s capital San José, you will be transferred to an excellent hotel. The hotel used is subject to availability, but many options have good chances to find birds right on the grounds.

 

Day 2: San José to Laguna de Lagarto

Today involves a bit of driving, but don’t worry, there is plenty of photography to do before we get to our final destination. We will leave relatively early and spend the morning photographing at a little “hole in the wall” kind of place, but if you let the looks deter you, you would miss out on spectacular birds like Northern Emerald-Toucanet, Red-headed Barbet, and a host of tanagers possibly including Crimson-colored Tanager. Hummingbirds are also on order here so we will be on the look out for Violet Sabrewing, Green-crowned Brilliant, and possibly even the gorgeous Black-bellied Hummingbird. This general vicinity is also home to another spectacular bird, the Bat Falcon. We will have lunch here and then move on to our principle location, Laguna del Lagarto Lodge, where we will spend three nights.

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Day 3: Laguna del Lagarto

Laguna del Lagarto is a photographer’s paradise. The highlight is their beautiful balcony from which you can shoot amazing birds like Keel-billed and Yellow-throated Toucans, Collared Aracari, Red-legged and Shinning Honeycreepers, a host of tanagers and woodcreepers, and the comical Brown-hooded Parrot. This area also hosts a stunning array of opportunistic photo opportunities like manakins, owls, waterbirds and the magnificent Great Curassow. We may spend part of the afternoon checking out the snakes that the lodge has out for photography, and the evening may be spent on the local bats.

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Day 4: Laguna del Lagarto

Today we will spend the morning in the King Vulture hide. Nothing can quite describe the feeling of watching vultures devour scraps of meat just feet from your face. You have to try this. Part of the he afternoon will be spent photographing the perches around the lodge – it can be difficult to pull yourself away from these excellent setups! There will also be time free time to explore, have a rest, do more snake photography, or anything else you would like. Nights around the lodge can yield owls so we will take advantage of those opportunities as they come.

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Day 5: Laguna del Lagarto to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui

We will spend the morning photographing around the lodge and then drive south to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, keeping an eye out for any places to stop for an opportunistic photograph (have a camera ready). We will grab lunch on the road and arrive at our next lodge in the early afternoon. After a quick rest, we will then explore some hotspots for opportunistic photography around town, such as at La Selva and Selva Verde. We’ll spend two nights at one of several excellent lodges in the area.

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Day 6: Sarapiqui area

For our first day, we will spend the morning with a Cope, a man who is revered as one of the region’s premier bird guides. He is also just an all-around great guy with an incredible yard setup just for photography. The highlight here (though it is never guaranteed) is White-tipped Sicklebill. Other birds include Orange-chinned Parakeeet, Montezuma Oropendola, Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer, and, with luck, American Pygmy Kingfisher. We will call it a day with Cope and return to 

 

Day 7: Sarapiqui to La Fortuna

This morning we will visit a fun place called “Frog Heaven”. Here we will photograph some of Costa Rica’s most iconic frogs like Red-eyed Tree Frog, Strawberry Poison Frog and many more. After we finish here we will drive west to La Fortuna, check into our hotel and rest for a bit before heading out to our afternoon location for some more opportunistic trail photography. This is arguably one of our best chances for Broad-billed and Keel-billed Motmot, Rufous-tailed Jacamar, Golden-winged Warbler, White-throated Crake, and possibly a Black-and-White Owl. We also have a great chance for Green Basilisk and Hoffman’s Three-toed Sloth. We spend the night in a nice lodge near Fortuna.

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Day 8: La Fortuna to Cañas

We’ll devote the morning to another one of Costa Rica’s iconic birds, the Three-wattled Bellbird. With luck we’ll come away with some nice shots of this strange creature, and should have some opportunistic chances at other species. We will also spend some time at a nearby feeder to hopefully photograph; Crimson-collared, Emerald, Speckled and Silver Throated Tanager, Tawny-capped Euphonia, Black-cheeked Woodpecker and a few other stunning fruit eating birds. We’ll then grab some lunch and continue our journey into the drier parts of western Costa Rica. We’ll spend two nights in a lodge outside of Cañas that serves as a good base of operations for our outings, and offers some decent photography on the grounds for birds like Turquoise-browed Motmot, Streak-backed Oriole, Black-headed Trogon, Rose-throated Becard, and White-fronted Parrot.

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Day 9: Volcán Tenorio Area

The morning will be spent around the stunning Volcán Tenorio. Here we will endeavor to find some speciality hummingbirds like Black-crested Coquette, Violet-headed Hummingbird, Snowcap and Blue-throated Golden-tail. The volcano can also offer some fun birds like Today Motmot, Keel-billed Motmot, Long-tailed Manakin, Crested Owl and if we're really, really lucky, the stunning Ornate Hawk Eagle. It is a beautifully forested area and a much different feel from the lodge from which we are based...it is a very cool day!

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Day 10: Cañas to La Ensenada

The morning will be spent around the lodge picking up birds we may have missed on our last walk around. Lunch will be taken on the road or when we arrive at La Ensenada Lodge. La Ensenada is right by the sea; it is absolutely beautiful and will offer us a fun host of new birds like Pacific Screech-Owl, Southern Lapwing, Wood Stork, Common Black Hawk, Sandwich Tern, Cinnamon Hummingbird, and perhaps the main target of the area, the impressive White-throated Magpie Jay.

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Day 11: La Ensenada to Tárcoles

We will spend the morning walking around La Ensenada before heading over to our next location, the Tarcoles area. We will have lunch on the road or when we check into our hotel, then head out to Carara NP for a bit of afternoon photography. This is all opportunistic photography and can be tough walking but it is an amazingly productive park for birds. If you do not wish to do this walk, there are birds around the lodge you can photograph for the afternoon. And these are not birds that most people think of as “iconic”. Birds like Dot-winged Antwren, Velvety Manakin, White-whiskered Puffbird, Riverside Wren, and if we are really lucky, we might get a view of a Northern Tamandua (a good-looking anteater). We’ll spend two nights in a lodge in the Tarcoles area.

 

Day 12: Tarcol River and Orotina

This is going to be our biggest, longest and hopefully most fruitful river cruise of the tour. We will be out for as early as possible (tide dependent) and going for about 4 hours. There are two areas in particular we need to visit, the mangroves and the main river. The early morning will be spent on the open river and then we will retreat into the mangroves as the morning goes on. The river will hold targets like Yellow-headed Caracara, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Amazon, Ringed, Green, and American Pygmy Kingfishers, Crested Caracara, a host of shorebirds, Scarlet Macaw and a few raptors like Plumbeous Kite and Common Black Hawk. We will take a short break for lunch and then meet up with a local guide in Orotina, who knows spots for Long-tailed Manakin, the gorgeous little Pearl Kite, and others. Year to year the spots and birds vary so we will just have to see what he has in store for us!

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Day 13: Tárcoles to the Talamanca Highlands

We will visit a few more Tarcoles (or Orotina) hotspots in the morning before heading out. The long drive will be broken up with a nice lunch and a visit to a site for some wonderful mid-elevation birds. White-crested Coquette and Snowy-bellied Hummingbird are the big targets here. There are several fruit feeders around that attract barbets, tanagers and toucanets, and we may be treated to Swallow-tailed Kites cruising along the valley, catching thermals. In the afternoon we will drive up to higher elevations and spend two nights at one of several excellent lodges in the area.

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Day 14: Talamanca Highlands

This scenic part of Costa Rica is wonderful, unique, and packed full of spectacular species. The first morning will be spent looking for our main target, the Resplendent Quetzal. During this time of year, the quetzals are typically nesting so we should have some great opportunities here, and should we not have any luck, we’ll have another chance tomorrow. We will spend the afternoon photographing the hummingbirds species at a multi-flash setup, and also visit a lovely location down in the valley with more feeders that bring in subjects like Spotted Wood-Quail, Acorn Woodpecker, several brushfinches and thrushes, White-throated Mountain Gem, Stripe-tailed Hummingbird, Scintillant Hummingbird, and a host of tanagers.

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Day 15: Highlands to San José

We have a number of options for our last morning, and we’ll make a plan based on whatever we are most eager to get better photos of. We may spend some time around our lodge photographing birds like Mountain Thrush, Fiery-throated and Talamanca Hummingbird, Mountain Elaenia, Tufted Flycatcher, Black-capped Flycatcher, and Long-tailed and Black-and-Yellow Silky-flycatchers. We could try again for the quetzal if we weren’t lucky the day before, or we could revisit one of the feeding setups. It truly is a magical area. In the afternoon we drive back to San José for a final night.

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Day 16: Departure from San José

The tour ends this morning with transfers to the airport; there are no photo shoots planned for this day, but you are welcome to do so on your own around the wonderful hotel grounds.