I am tempted to declare Esquinas Rainforest Lodge my best birding location yet! In 6 days I photographed 50+ species of birds with 12 of them first timers for me or “lifers” for Costa Rica with two seen before in other Panama. The Lodge name link above is to their lodge website. Or check out others’ reviews on TripAdvisor.
I highly recommend it! The lodging, food and services were all first class while immersed in a rainforest. You know that I have a lot of places I like all over Costa Rica, but this new one for me just moved near the top of my list! And realize that I was here during the wettest month of the year for them and still had a great experience! And it may have helped that I was the only guest there this week and had a personal birding guide! Plus a personal chef and maid! 🙂 Hey! This is living! Retired in Costa Rica!
My Trip Gallery is Posted!
See the birds, animals, flowers, lodge and Golfito in my gallery for this trip at 2018 Esquinas Rainforest Lodge Visit. Photos are the reason I make these trips and this collection is the result of this trip. A photo book will be coming soon! If no one else, the host lodges all love my photo books as I send one to each of them.
My Birds This Trip
Here are the birds I saw and photographed with the “lifers” or ones seen for the first time in boldface type. Presented in the order of the lodge’s bird list which is a little different from the Field Guide:
- Great Curassow
- Brown Booby (1st in CR, got some in Panama in June)
- Brown Pelican
- Neotropic Cormorant
- Magnificent Frigatebird
- Little Blue Heron
- Great Egret
- Cattle Egret
- Snowy Egret
- Green Heron
- Tricolored Heron
- Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
- Roseate Spoonbill
- White Ibis
- Green Ibis
- Osprey
- Gray-cowled Wood-Rail (formerly Gray-necked Wood-Rail)
- Willet
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Ruddy Turnstone
- Laughing Gull
- Short-billed Pigeon
- White-tipped Dove
- Gray-chested Dove
- Squirrel Cuckoo
- Long-billed Hermit
- Band-tailed Barbthroat
- Purple-crowned Fairy
- Charming Hummingbird
- Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
- Violet-headed Hummingbird
- Ringed Kingfisher
- Green Kingfisher
- American Pygmy Kingfisher (1st in CR, have photo from Panama)
- Fiery-billed Aracari
- Wedge-billed Woodcreeper
- Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet
- Ochre-bellied Flycatcher
- Least Flycatcher
- Great Kiskadee
- Gray-capped Flycatcher
- Tropical Kingbird
- Orange-collared Manakin
- Gray-breasted Martin
- Clay-colored Thrush
- Prothonotary Warbler
- Bananaquit
- Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager (endemic to this area)
- Scarlet-rumped Tanager (formerly Cherrie’s Tanager)
- Bay-headed Tanager
- Green Honeycreeper
- Variable Seedeater
- Orange-billed Sparrow
- Scarlet-rumped Cacique
- Spot-crowned Euphonia
And with many of these I saw both male & female which can be so different it is like another species! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!