Birding Manuel Antonio area and Carara, 2 full days with Mike and Suzzane Britton. Part 1

A full day in Manuel Antonio area on March 6th, in this occasion I had the opportunity to bird with Suzanne and Mike Britton for Ottowa Canada.

While they were here about 15 years ago, back then they were not really birders and this second trip to Costa Rica was really their first birding trip to our tropics. Suzanne is an avid birder and has noticeably taken her time to study our birds which made the days very interesting as she had a nice wish list of birds she wanted to see, but of course, all species were welcome!

Here is the wishlist, those on bold letters were the species we saw:

1-Masked duck 2-Great curassow 3-Anhinga 4-Boat billed heron 5-King vulture 6-Swallow tailed kite 7-White tailed kite 8-Black and white hawk-eagle 9-Ornate hawk-eagle 10-Bat falcon 11-Laughing falcon 12-Gray necked wood-rail 13-Rufous necked wood rail 14-Purple gallinule 15-Northern Jacana 16-Scarlet  macaw 17-Squirrel cuckoo 18-common potoo 19-violet sabrewing 20-Green breasted mango 21-Violet crowned woodnymph 22-White crested coquette 23- Violaceus trogon (gartered) 24-Baird’d trogon 25-Slaty tailed trogon 26-Blue crowned mot mot 27- Turquoised browed motmot 28-Green kingfisher 29-American pygmy kingfisher 30-Black mandibled touca 31-Fiery billed aracary 32-Barred antshrike 33-Royal flycatcher 34-Scissor tailed flycatcher 35-Long tailed manakin 36-White throated magpie-jay 37-speckled tanager 38-Golden hooded tanager 39-Shining honeycreeper 40-Red legged Honeycreeper 41-Orange billed sparrow 42-Montezuma Oropendola 43-Any euphonia spp

Male Masked tytira, Suzanne’s favorite songster.

Bay headed tanager and Fem Green honeycreeper

Our day began when we met in Hotel Pueblo real, 10 minutes outside of Quepos, and then we headed to Esquipulas our plan was to bird all day in the areas of Esquipulas, La gallega river and El rey.

Our morning was very productive and saw about 72 bird species, this counts a couple seen along the way in the town of Naranjito as I usually keep track of what could be seen on the road we do not usually see in Esquipulas such as Rufous napped wren, scarlet macaw and others. here we birded until 1:00pm then we went for La gallega river.

Esquipulas, CR-SJ
Mar 6, 2014 6:20 AM – 12:20 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 kilometer(s)
Comments: Birding tour with Mike and Suzzane Britton. Ottowa Ca.
72 species (+1 other taxa)

Crested Guan X
Cattle Egret X
Black Vulture X
Turkey Vulture X
King Vulture X
Double-toothed Kite X
Roadside Hawk X
Gray/Gray-lined Hawk X
Short-tailed Hawk X
Pale-vented Pigeon X
Short-billed Pigeon X
Inca Dove X
Ruddy Ground-Dove X
White-tipped Dove X
Groove-billed Ani X
Stripe-throated Hermit X
Purple-crowned Fairy X
Violet-headed Hummingbird X
Scaly-breasted Hummingbird X
Violet Sabrewing X
Charming Hummingbird X
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird X
Baird’s Trogon X
Blue-crowned Motmot X
Fiery-billed Aracari X
Golden-naped Woodpecker X
Red-crowned Woodpecker X
Lineated Woodpecker X
Crested Caracara X
Yellow-headed Caracara X
Scarlet Macaw X
White-crowned Parrot X
Chestnut-backed Antbird X
Wedge-billed Woodcreeper X
Streak-headed Woodcreeper X
Yellow-bellied Elaenia X
Common Tody-Flycatcher X
Eye-ringed Flatbill X
Acadian Flycatcher X
Great Kiskadee X
Boat-billed Flycatcher X
Social Flycatcher X
Streaked Flycatcher X
Piratic Flycatcher X
Tropical Kingbird X
Masked Tityra X
Rose-throated Becard X
Brown Jay X
Southern Rough-winged Swallow X
Gray-breasted Martin X
House Wren X
Rufous-naped Wren X
Riverside Wren X
Clay-colored Thrush X
Tennessee Warbler X
Yellow Warbler X
Chestnut-sided Warbler X
Cherrie’s Tanager X
Blue-gray Tanager X
Palm Tanager X
Golden-hooded Tanager X
Bay-headed Tanager X
Red-legged Honeycreeper X
Green Honeycreeper X
Thick-billed Seed-Finch X
Bananaquit X
Orange-billed Sparrow X
Summer Tanager X
Melodious Blackbird X
Great-tailed Grackle X
Bronzed Cowbird X
Thick-billed Euphonia X
Spot-crowned Euphonia X

Baird’s trogon, its been seen regularly at Esquipulas lately

Male green honeycreeper, notice the cicada as well!

Male and female black crowned tytira

common tody-flycatcher

La Gallega is a river located just 5.5 kilometers from Esquipulas, in the way back to Quepos, I often visit this place in search for specific species such as the tropical mockingbird, collared plover, red breasted blackbird and southern lapwing, we went here in our way back for lunch and got:

Gray/Gray-lined Hawk X
Amazon Kingfisher X
Crested Caracara X
Yellow-headed Caracara X
Mangrove Swallow X
Tropical Mockingbird X
Red-breasted Blackbird

Tropical mockingbird

 

AFter La a quick stop here we then headed for Lunch, we stopped at a restaurant on route 34 south, and while just as we finished lunch I heard a plain wren call from behind the building so of course we had to see it!

Once in El rey we birded from 3:30 to 5:45pm  where we saw:

Finca Maritima (Playa El Rey) rice fields, CR-P
Mar 6, 2014 3:30 PM – 5:45 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 kilometer(s)
52 species

Great Egret X
Cattle Egret X
Green Heron X
Black Vulture X
Turkey Vulture X
Common Black-Hawk X
Zone-tailed Hawk X
Purple Gallinule X
Double-striped Thick-knee X
Northern Jacana X
Ruddy Ground-Dove X
Groove-billed Ani X
Green-breasted Mango X
Ruby-throated Hummingbird X
Scaly-breasted Hummingbird X
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird X
Blue-throated Goldentail X
Ringed Kingfisher X
Amazon Kingfisher X
Green Kingfisher X
American Pygmy Kingfisher X
Crested Caracara X
Yellow-headed Caracara X
Peregrine Falcon X
Common Tody-Flycatcher X
Great Kiskadee X
Boat-billed Flycatcher X
Streaked Flycatcher X
Tropical Kingbird X
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher X
Yellow-throated Vireo X
Gray-breasted Martin X
House Wren X
Plain Wren X
Clay-colored Thrush X
Prothonotary Warbler X
Tennessee Warbler X
American Redstart X
Yellow Warbler X
Chestnut-sided Warbler X
Cherrie’s Tanager X
Blue-gray Tanager X
Palm Tanager X
Blue-black Grassquit X
White-collared Seedeater X
Indigo Bunting X
Dickcissel X
Red-breasted Blackbird X
Great-tailed Grackle X
Bronzed Cowbird X
Orchard Oriole X
Baltimore Oriole X

American pygmy kingfisher

A barn swallow meeting! The sky was full of them by sunset.

spectacled caiman

A variegated squirrel

And what a way to end our already-great day of birding!.

Par 2: Full day at Carara.