Birding in Costa Rica #3: San José

Fiery-billed Aracari on the hotel grounds

Now, I’ll begin a series of posts about the specific of my birding tour in Costa Rica. The “set-up” posts are here and here. 

As I mentioned, the tour began at the Hotel Robledal, which is in northwest San José, the capital of Costa Rica. 

Photo: Travel Weekly

Susan and I arrived late the night before the official start date, which was the afternoon of March 10. While in town not too far from the airport, the Hotel Robledal feels like a small oasis. It is gated and has beautiful trees and plants. 

Hotel grounds

There is a pool that I briefly considered swimming in, but I just didn’t get around to it. 

Photo: Hotels.com

The rooms were simple, but clean and cool. Mine had a nice porch ...

Left, my room; Right photo: Hotels.com

... just below where resident Ferruginous Pygmy Owls were perched.

The queen of the hotel (and she knows it)

Susan and I flirted with visiting the San José zoo, but ended up just hanging out at the hotel, which was fine because it has lots of birds onsite. In fact, after we met Juan Diego that evening, we did some official birding on the grounds. I’ll briefly run through birds I saw on my own and in that little birding session. 

The highlight was the pair of Ferruginous Pygmy Owls that inhabit a nest box the hotel has installed and fitted with a camera. We were fortunate to see both the male … 

Daddy Owl

... and the female ...

Mama Owl

We also saw the live-feed of the two eggs in the box, but I failed to get a picture.

Another species we saw was the magnificent Lesson’s Motmot, which posed for us in two different places on the grounds. 

Lesson's Motmot

We saw several more during the trip, but this bird will always be special to me because it was the first of many magnificent birds I encountered on the trip. 

Yeah, repetitive posting, but such a pretty bird

A variety of rackets

I realized after I photographed it that I wasn’t paying enough attention to its racket-tail and I kept cutting it off or losing it behind a stump. By the way, Juan Diego told us that the racket isn’t natural; the Motmot sculpts it out of long tail feathers. 

The name “Motmot” comes from double-hooting call of this species, which can sound like an Owl and is mainly uttered around dawn. 

The beauty of the Lesson’s Motmot should not discount the equally magnificent Fiery-billed Aracari (a member of the Toucan family) which put on quite a show chasing other birds around the pink-blossomed trees. 

A really tropical-looking bird

This was a fabulous sighting in great light. Although I saw Fiery Aracaris later in the trip, I never got equally good photo opportunities. We later also saw a similar bird, the Collared Aracari. The difference is the bill; the Fiery-billed is distinctive with bright orange on the top half. 

The orange bill is the field mark

And, we saw so many more birds, some familiar and some new. Among birds I had seen before (AKA, not ‘lifers”) were several Baltimore Orioles (probably migrating through), Great-tailed Grackles, a male Summer Tanager (also probably migrating), Melodious Blackbirds (which I had seen in Mexico a few years ago), White-winged Doves (common in the far southern U.S.) and Inca Doves (common in the far south Southwest). 

CW: Baltimore Oriole, Great-tailed Grackle, Summer Tanager, Inca Dove, White-winged Dove, Melodious Blackbird

We also saw two birds I had recently photographed down in South Texas: Great Kiskadees, including a pair that was actively feeding their young in a nest by the pool …

Great Kiskadee getting ready to make a food delivery

… and Social Flycatchers … 

Smaller and more delicate than the Great Kiskadee (and no rufous on the wings)

I had traveled to Brownsville when birding in southern Texas earlier this year and waited for a long time to see just one Social Flycatcher. I suspected at the time that I’d see more in Costa Rica and I was right.

Another bird that I had just seen as a lifer in south Texas is common throughout Costa Rica: the Clay-colored Thrush ...

Just a clay ... colored ... thrush

They are absolutely everywhere. I find it fascinating that a country dripping with colorful birds has chosen its most boring species as its national bird. 

Of course, more exciting than the familiar birds, were the new ones, including the aforementioned Ferruginous Pygmy Owls, Fiery Aracari and Lesson’s Motmot … 

Three beauties

One was the Boat-billed Flycatcher, which is very difficult to differentiate from Great Kiskadees. There are additional birds with similar yellow bellies, brown backs and brown/white marked heads. The pattern must be good for something. We also saw Blue-gray Tanagers (I struggled to get decent photos; later in the trip, I got many), Red-billed Pigeons (which just have a small red bill base rather than having actual red bills), Hoffman’s Woodpeckers (males have a red crown; females just have yellow) and a Masked Tityra with its white feathers and red-skin/black-feather “mask” … 

CW: Boat-billed Flycatcher, Blue-gray Tanager, Red-billed Pigeons, male Masked Tityra, male Hoffman’s Woodpecker

While we were eating at the Hotel’s café, we were entertained by some beautiful Rufous-naped Wrens that were industriously building a nest …

 

Rufous-naped Wren hard at work

There were a number of Spot-breasted Orioles, which live in Central America (primarily in Costa Rica) and in southeastern Florida (I never even heard of one there), in the gardens by the hotel ...

Spot-breasted Oriole

We also tried, and mainly failed, to photograph the two species of Hummingbirds – Canivet’s Emerald and Cinnamon – that were working the hedge around to pool. Although I saw them, the best photo I could get was this almost-not-there shot of a female Canivet’s ... 

Look in the lower right

And, we saw quite a few birds flying very high in the sky. This one, a short-tailed Hawk, I couldn't make out until I saw the photo ...

Really zoomed in

Sightings were rounded out by Squirrels and Iguanas ...

Variegated Squirrel, Black Spiny-tailed Iguana

The Robledal proved to be a nice starting (and ending) point for the tour. The grounds are lovely, the birds interesting and the staff delightful. I found the restaurant to be so-so. But, this was a birding tour, not a culinary tour. 

Like most places in Costa Rica, dining is outside

This was a shorter post than most of this series because we didn’t spend a lot of time in San José. In the next post, we’ll go to the Central Pacific Coast.

See you soon!

Trip date: March 9-27, 2022