This is my final post about our stay at La Carolina Lodge up in the Rainforest Highlands of Costa Rica. This is a most excellent eco-lodge, which will help you get off the grid and relax. Sorry if this post seems like a “data dump”, but even with restricting images to just one per bird species, I saw some amazing feathered friends. Visiting in April means many birds are busy “courting their prospective mates”.

Before the birds, more about our lodge. If you want fancy … air conditioning with wifi plus TV’s go elsewhere. Our basic cabin was open to the mountain stream below our deck. In the image of Molly reading she is NOT online. We both downloaded books to our tablets before visiting. However, if you want to experience life at a slower pace which is immersed in nature, La Carolina Lodge is for you! All our meals were family style, and the lodge raises / grows 80% or more of what we ate. Our all inclusive cash price (credit card price is higher) for our cabin including 3 nights and 9 meals for two adults was $690 in April of 2023. The staff is super friendly.

Molly Reading on our Cabin Deck

The View of the Eating Area (open area structure at the top is my next image)

Happy Hour View of the Stream from the Lounge / Eating Area (alcohol is not available, but you are allowed to bring your own … of course for us, Chardonnay!)

• One of my very enjoyable tasks while down here in Costa Rica is updating my Costa Rican Birding Book … The Birds of Las Catalinas (Free full copy PDF’s of Version 1 are available). While the major focus of the book is the birds of this region, Version 2 will also cover El Viejo Wetlands and the Rainforest Highlands. Full copies of Release #2 will also be freely available as a PDF Download.

And now the remaining birds … (in alphabetical order)

• Post 1: Yellow-Throated Toucan
• Post 2: Collared Aracari (also a Toucan)
• Post 3: Crested Caracaras and Southern Lapwings

Black Vulture

Black-Cheeked Woodpecker

Blue Gray Tanager

Clay Colored Thrush

Crested Guan

Green Honeycreeper

Montezuma Oropendola

Palm Tanager

Red-Legged Honeycreeper

Red-Lored Parrot

Ruddy Ground Dove

Russet-Naped Wood Rail

Scarlet-Rumped Tanager

Streak Backed Oriole

White-Whiskered Puff Bird

Yellow Green Vireo

Yellow-Throated Euphonia

I still have lots of birds that I have not shown from our time up in the Rainforest Highlands at Las Carolinas Eco-Lodge, but it seemed appropriate to show a few images I took at our new location, Las Catalinas on the Pacific Ocean (NY Times Article). I will get back to wrapping up our time in the rainforest, but each day now I start with a bird hike at 6 am. When the temperature will soar to almost 100F by noon, it is important to get up before the sun. While sunrise technically is earlier that 6 am, the golden orb does not peek above the hills to the east till pushing 6:30. While birding I am rarely very far from the Pacific.

• One of my very enjoyable tasks while down here in Costa Rica is updating my Costa Rican Birding Book … The Birds of Las Catalinas (Free full copy PDF’s of Version 1 are available). While the major focus of the book is the birds of this region, Version 2 will also cover El Viejo Wetlands and the Rainforest Highlands. Full copies of Release #2 will also be freely available as a PDF Download.

From this morning’s bird hike …

Turquoise-Browed Motmot

Grooved-Billed Ani

In my earlier posts from our time spent at La Carolina Lodge I mentioned that our hosts grew or raised most of the food we ate. Thus, their extensive acreage included a working farm which bordered the rainforest up in the highlands. Most mornings I would hike and bird the fields. Perhaps this post should have been titled “The Attack of the Southern Lapwings”!

On a late afternoon hike before supper I spotted a family of four Crested Caracaras. The “Mexican Eagles” (another name for the Caracaras) were posing nicely for me, but in my excitement to get in position to take some photographs I failed to pay attention to the loud bird song very near me. Major mistake! Within moments I was under attack, being dived bombed within inches of my head by a pair of Southern Lapwings. These somewhat large shorebirds are noted for occasionally nesting in farm fields (Wikipedia Link). Anyhow, in my attempt to get a good angle on the Caracaras I obviously got to close to the Lapwings nest, which I until their attack did not even realize was near. Live, Learn and Run! (yes … I made a very quick exit).

• My book on Costa Rica Birding will be significantly updated in May to include information from this current trip. Anyone may download a “full version PDF copy“ without charge of my current version. When available, version 2 PDF’s will also be available at no cost.

Crested Caracaras (bird with tannish brown head is a youngster)

Southern Lapwings (after attacking me)