We travelled from Carara National Park to Monteverde in the northwest of the country during the afternoon of 20 February, checking in to the Cala Lodge in Monteverde before dinner. The lodge is located at a beautiful site in the cloud forest and surrounded by woodland than contain a wide range of fauna and flora.
We started birding early on 21 February, which was our only full day around Monteverde. We first spent some time around the lodge feeders where a Coatimundi was enjoying the fruit. While in a nearby tree a Variegated Squirrel was eating berries.
Birding highlights during the morning session included Black-faced Solitaire, Lesson’s Motmot, Collared Trogon (female orange-bellied morph), White-throated Magpie-jay and more sightings of the stunning Resplendent Quetzal.
Later in the day we did some birding near the lodge feeders and saw Violet Sabrewing, Bananaquit, Purple-throated Mountain-gem, Green-crowned Brilliant and Stripe-tailed Hummingbird.
Near the feeders we saw a beautiful Long-tailed Manakin, along with the plainer Grey-headed Chachalaca.
Our final birding session of the trip was during the morning of 22 February. Near the start we saw a Black-breasted Wood-quail, which is a bird of the humid montane forests of Costa Rica and Panama, although the light was poor making photography difficult. However, we did get an acceptable photo of a Grey-throated Leaftosser on the forest floor. Easier to photograph were the Elegant Euphonia, Yellow-faced Grassquit, Rufous-naped Lark, Squirrel Cuckoo and Three-wattled Bellbird.
After a productive final morning of birding at Monteverde we started our journey back to San Jose for our flights home after what we all agreed was an excellent birding trip. We took photographs of 275 bird species, of which 184 were ‘lifers’, which was very good for a 10 day trip.