I was really excited about the birding at Selva Verde because of the amazing bird list and superb guides they employ.  We were up at the crack of dawn as usual for our birding walk with one of Costa Rica’s top birding guides, Alejandro Esquival.  He is also the person who gives the lectures around 5pm in a little pavilion near the swimming pool to give you an idea of what can be seen in the area.  Alejandro is also a skilled photographer and has some amazing images on his Flickr page.  He did a fantastic job of finding most of our targeted species and some that were so well hidden we never would have found them on our own.

Selva Verde Lodge has a checklist and more information on their website.  They do a bird count every year around Christmas time as they mention on their blog.  I have copied the parrot section here and highlighted in yellow the ones we saw both the evening before and during the guided walk.

This is one of the best places in the world to see the endangered Great Green Macaw in the wild and we were very lucky to see 2 flying over the swimming pool in the late afternoon.

MY PHOTOS

Sorry, most are pretty bad.  The birds were far away and often backlit so I can’t even see the colours.  I tried to identify most of them.  I did get some good ones of the Crimson-fronted Conure with Alejandro’s help.  At least he was perching nicely and holding still!