COSTA RICA -- DAY 3 - FEBRUARY 10TH 2014

SELVA VERDE LODGE - LA VIRGIN CLOUD FOREST

A day of overcast sky and bout of rain with prolonged rain in the late afternoon.

Our day began at 6am with a pre-breakfast walk in the lovely grounds and forest at Selva Verde. But first we watched the bird feeders. Not many species came to feed however we did find a Red-throated Ant-Tanager and a Pale-billed Woodpecker nearby. Our walk took us to the river where we enjoyed a hour or so watching both water birds and forest birds along the water's edge.

BARE-THROATED TIGER HERON - JUV

In and near the water we found two species of Tiger-Heron, the Bare-throated and the Fasciated, they were both in juvenile plumage and it took some time to separate them from one another. We also had great views of Amazon Kingfisher, Spotted Sandpiper and Buff-rumped Warbler.

Many other species flew over the river or perched high in dead trees, we found both Chestnut Mandibled and Keel-billed Toucans, Neotropic Cormorant and several other nice species. Back on the forest trail we found Orange-billed Sparrow, White-collared Manakin and Streak-headed Woodcreeper.

BRONZE-TAILED PLUMELETEER

We ate a lovely breakfast at 8am and by 9am we were on the trails again, this time we walked across to the small area of gardens where meant species were seen flitted about in the numerous trees and shrubs. Birds such as Cinnamon Becard, Golden-hooded Tanager, Yellow-crowned Euphoria, Red-throated Ant-Tanager, Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer, Tropical Gnatcatcher and others kept us busy for a long time. We walked along a dirt and found a Black-throated Trogon, Tennessee Warbler and Chestnut-sided Warbler. A couple of other sightings were made by the reception area: Stripe-throated Hermit and a lovely Wood Thrush.

After a quick break we jumped onto the bus and headed for our next venue the "cloud Forest" at La Virgen. Our destination was a small restaurant where we intended to eat lunch, they had some very active feeders there. Some great treats awaited us AMD we quickly list about 15 new birds for the trip. Some excellent sightings were made of Coppery-headed Emerald (one of the four endemics of Costa Rice), also the Prong-billed Barbet ( a regional endemic) and the star of the show had to be the Emerald Toucanet, what a fabulous bird.

EMERALD TOUCANET

Other species kept our attention, Common Bush-Finch, Silver-throated Tanager, Green Thorntail, Violet Sabrewing, Green Hermit, Rufous-winged Woodpecker and such a lot more, it was really fantastic and the birds came so close to it was magical.

RUFOUS-WINGED WOODPECKER

We then ate a lovely lunch served  in the restaurant, our food was cooked over an open fire and it was superb.

It clouded over (well we were in the cloud forest!) and light rain began but it didn't stop us going for a walk a few kilometres down the road. The track we chose dropped steeply down into a steep sided gorge and it was full of birds. There were several American Warblers we had good views of Wilson's, Tennessee, Chestnut Sided and Townsend Warblers, as well as Tropical Perula, Slate-throated Redstart, Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant, Bay-headed Tanager and a couple of new hawks, Barred hawk and Swanson's Hawk.

A little further down the track a beautiful Collared Redstart showed brilliantly, it came so close us that we didn't bins, it was a photographer's dream, absolutely gorgeous.


BIRDING THE TRACK AT LA VIRGIN

More warbler sightings followed but the rain got steadily worse and eventually we arrived at TH bottom of the gorge where we stood on bridge scanning the river. All we found was Black Phoebe, it now getting quite dull too so we called it day and got back onto the bus which had followed us down the track.



TROPICAL PERULA

We met up again at 7pm and drove into town for our dinner and the heavens opened up, it poured for an hour or so and eased off just in time for us to get back to the lodge to finish another day.

The trip total now stands at 165 species, coming on nicely!