The Blue Dacnis or Turquoise Honeycreeper (Dacnis cayana) is a small passerine bird and a member of the tanager family.
This bird has a huge range from Nicaragua to the south of Brazil. I have personally seen them at Cristalino and Laguna de Lagarto in Costa Rica but this is nowhere near an exhaustive list.
Just look at the gorgeous blue on this hungry little guy!
Bird feeders with fruit will attract them.
The Chestnut-colored Woodpecker is one of the fanciest of the woodpeckers in Central America. It is a member of the genus Celeus, which is composed of numerous “chestnut” colored woodpeckers, all of which also have a characteristic “hammer-head” crest. The Chestnut-colored occurs farther north than any of its congeners, ranging from southern Mexico south to extreme northwestern Panama. Overall the bird is bright chestnut-brown. The crest is a paler light rufous-brown, the underparts and back have extensive black chevron-shaped scaling, it has a red “mustache” stripe, and the bill is light yellow.
It is found in Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama, so you will need a Central American award to get within their range. My best sightings were at Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in Costa Rica.
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Foraging and “woodpecking” for food.
The Orange-chinned Parakeet (Brotogeris jugularis), also known as the Tovi Parakeet, is a small mainly green parrot of the Brotogeris genus. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and heavily degraded former forest. Its name comes from a small clump of bright orange feathers located under the lower beak.
Radisson Summit, Panama
Laguna del Lagarto
Orange-chinned Parakeets are found from southern Mexico, throughout Central America to the northern parts of Colombia & Venezuela. A Central America award will get you to the main places you can see them. We saw them from the balcony of the Radisson Summit in Panama albeit at a great distance. Views at the Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in Costa Rica were much closer! The parakeets enjoy the bananas put out for them and tend to frequent the surrounding trees as well.
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Although the dialogue is is Spanish, the footage of the birds is beautiful!
The Costa Rican Bird Route is the first birding trail of its kind in Central America. Located in the northern region of Costa Rica, this ecotourism project offers a variety of bird watching and nature tourism opportunities. The Bird Route consists of 18 nature reserves specifically chosen for their high diversity of bird species. Most importantly, this region hosts the last remaining habitat in Costa Rica for the endangered Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus). The Costa Rican Bird Route offers the best opportunity to view this species on the planet! Use your miles for a Central American award to get here!
On our trip, we visited two of the lodges on the Bird Route: Selva Verde & Laguna del Lagarto.
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1. Visit the Bird Route The success of this project is dependent on sustained tourism to the sites involved, so come explore all that the Bird Route has to offer.
2. Make a Donation. Make a tax-deductible donation to the Costa Rican Bird Route project using the secure Paypal button here. Donations are used to support the efforts of the private landowners. This includes assistance with producing brochures, maintaining websites, creating signs, etc. Money will also be used for continuous education efforts within the communities of the Bird Route. Rainforest Biodiversity Group is looking to implement bird education curriculum within these communities as well as fund future workshops for the landowners.
3. Volunteer. Rainforest Biodiversity Group is looking for volunteers to work with the private landowners of the remote sites of the Bird Route, assisting them in developing their land for eco-tourism. These newly created reserves are at varying stages of development as eco-tourism sites.
The Golden-hooded Tanager (Tangara larvata) is a neotropical species that inhabits humid forest and forest edges. It belongs to the speciose genus Tangara and is often considered to belong to a superspecies with the Masked Tanager (Tangara nigrocincta) and Blue-necked Tanager (Tangara cyanicollis).
This tanager is a resident breeder from southern Mexico south to western Ecuador. Some of the easiest places to see this beautiful little tanager is at Selva Verde Lodge & Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in Costa Rica. Use an award to Central America to get to San Jose. The lodges can organize a private shuttle or you can use the local buses to get there. They are also frequently seen in Soberania National Park in Panama as the video clips below show.
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This is an adorable video of a baby Golden-hooded Tanager fledging. I love how he works up his courage, then takes off!
This adult is preening, perhaps getting ready for his close-up!
Here’s a hungry little guy!
The Brown-hooded Parrot (Pyrilia haematotis) is a small parrot which is a resident breeding species from southeastern Mexico to north-western Colombia. Until recently, it was placed in the genus Pionopsitta, which now is restricted to the type species, the Pileated Parrot. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the Rose-faced Parrot (P. pulchra). This species has been adversely affected by deforestation.
It is found in lowlands and foothills locally up to 1600 m altitude in forest canopy and edges, and adjacent semi-open woodland and second growth. The white eggs are laid in an unlined nest, usually a natural cavity in a tree.
Although their range extends from Mexico to northern Colombia, the easiest place to see this beautiful parrot is at Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in Costa Rica. Use an award to Central America to get to San Jose, then the lodge has a shuttle to transfer you there. It’s quite a remote area.
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This species is presumed to have declined over much of its range due to deforestation, but it is still rated as “least concern” by IUCN.
Since there are so many photos, I am breaking this up into separate posts. There are other posts for information on how to get to Costa Rica & Laguna del Lagarto.
Bird List of Laguna del Lagarto
This is the final post in the Laguna del Lagarto series. Unfortunately I lost the checklist I made with the help of the guides at Laguna del Lagarto so this is from memory as to which birds I saw. If I find the checklist, I will come back to this post and update it. I do remember some of the Tanagers but not all of those tiny but gorgeous birds are Tanagers. The Woodpeckers are especially cute! Enjoy the photos and if you can help me identify any of these birds please do so in the comments!
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Woodpeckers
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OTHER BIRDS
If I can find my notes, I would be able to identify more of these. Some of the little green birds are the females and they look very similar.
Currasow
MONTEZUMA OROPENDULA
I think this is a
I love this little guy’s red feet!
Since there are so many photos, I am breaking this up into separate posts. There are other posts for information on how to get to Costa Rica & Laguna del Lagarto.
Bird List of Laguna del Lagarto
These spectacular little birds are often called “flying jewels” because of their brilliant irridescent colouring. Unfortunately I lost the checklist I made with the help of the guides at Laguna del Lagarto so this is from memory as to which hummingbirds I saw. The ones at the lodge were Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds. The ones at Adolfo’s home garden (feeders) are highlighted in yellow to the best of my memory. If I find the checklist, I will come back to this post and update it. Humming birds are slightly easier to photograph than parrots because they are at least closer. But they sure are fast!
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Since there are so many photos, I am breaking this up into separate posts. There are other posts for information on how to get to Costa Rica & Laguna del Lagarto.
Bird List of Laguna del Lagarto
I highlighted in yellow the ones I saw. I didn’t get photos of the Crimson-fronted Parakeet or Olive-throated Parakeet. I’ll try to put the photos in order of this list as there are too many to caption.
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The Laguna del Lagarto Rainforest Lodge is one of the holy grails for dedicated birders. It’s located in an unspoiled and virtually unvisited tropical rainforest, where you can explore the eco-system at your own pace while staying at a cozy jungle hideaway. Birds are literally everywhere, just my kind of place!
Getting to Costa Rica is simple with a Central American award flight. The map below shows the route from the airport in case you want to hire a car and drive yourself. Don’t laugh, but I was not brave enough to drive in Costa Rica (more about that later) and preferred to use either public buses or tourist shuttles. On the map below, the red dot is roughly in the area of Selva Verde where the shuttle came to pick us up.
If you add in the insurances and the cost of the rental car and petrol/gas it’s not really that big a difference in cost. I quite enjoyed the shuttle as it meant I could relax, look out the window and enjoy the ride through the countryside. Just email Laguna del Lagarto and let them know when and where to pick you up from the options on their website.
We finally arrived at Laguna del Lagarto in the early afternoon. I think it took around 3 hours-ish. The road was pretty rough so I was glad I wasn’t driving and possibly messing up the undercarriage of a rental car.
The friendly manager, Adolfo came and greeted us and chatted to my husband while I filled in the registration forms. I had prepaid the room on Pointshound to earn miles but was pleased to learn they take Amex for incidentals such as meals, guides, the shuttle costs and souvenirs.
Rooms are very simple but here it’s all about the view! You can sit on your deck overlooking the rainforest for some lazy birding as they are everywhere! The guides here are fantastic! They really know the local birds and speak English pretty well. We had Didier as our guide and he went out of his way to find birds, especially parrots, even chasing us down at breakfast so we wouldn’t miss a passing flock of Olive-throated Parakeets. You can use the canoes free of charge if you like. I personally preferred to just walk around the grounds or hang out on the deck where the roof protected you from rain even as more birds came to frolic.
Towel animals!
This was the only sighting of a Great Green Macaw, off in the distance, seen from our deck.
It’s not just a room with a view, it’s a dining room with a view! Buffets are served at breakfast and sometimes for dinner unless there are only a few people, then they bring you a very full plate of delicious food. Lunch is either sandwiches or a full meal but with the heat of the day most people don’t want a heavy meal at lunch. Wireless internet (WIFI) is offered in the reception and restaurant area. It’s slow but adequate to check your emails. Besides, it’s more fun to sit back and watch the birds eating their bananas on the adjacent viewing deck!
Ina shows the guides how Cook Islanders open a coconut!
HOW TO BOOK LAGUNA DEL LAGARTOYou can either email them direct from their website or book on some hotel aggregators such as Pointshound, Hotels.com, Expedia. Prices are extremely reasonable. I wish I had more time to stay longer as this place had amazing bird watching!
Don’t worry, bird photos are coming on separate posts. I have so many, it will take a couple posts.
Front and back view of our bungalow.
