Review: The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide

Costa Rica is an extremely popular destination for birders in the tropics, so it's surprising that the only good field guide that's been available was published in 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica by F. Gary Stiles and Alexander F. Skutch is a classic, but unfortunately a lot has changed in Costa Rican birding in the last 18 years. There have been splits, range expansions, and name changes galore making Stiles and Skutch (S&S) difficult to use without a bunch of handwritten notes.

Finally, a new field guide dedicated to Costa Rica was published in May - The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide by Richard Garrigues and Robert Dean. Garrigues and Dean (G&D) are two of Costa Rica's top birders and they've really come through with a book "for birders, by birders."

The first thing I noticed about the book was its size and portability. It's compact and about the size of the National Geographic North America guide. This is a big change from S&S which is a very large book due to its inclusion of natural history information (habits and nesting) for each bird. On my two trips to Costa Rica, the size of S&S was always a pain because it was usually packed away in someone's backpack. On the flip side, G&D is extremely portable, but lacks the natural history information on each bird so you may want to keep your S&S around.

The book is organized like most traditional field guides. There is a brief introduction on how to use the book and then it jumps right into the birds. Each section starts with a short paragraph describing the family. Each bird is illustrated in fantastic detail in all of its adult plumages. Each entry is accompanied by a description of the bird with key field marks in bold. Range information, a description of the vocalizations, and a notation if the bird is endemic are also included. The biggest leap from S&S is the inclusion of a range map next to each entry. These can be compared to a detailed map of Costa Rica in the front cover.

One thing that confused me at first was the scale of the drawings on each page. Each drawing is to scale with the other drawings on the page, but some pages include one or more drawings that are of a different scale. These drawings are separated from the others by a black line. This took some getting used to. Also, you have to keep this scale in mind because one page of Empidonax flycatchers may have 6 large drawings and the next will have 12 small drawings even though the birds are the same size in life.

The back of the book includes a helpful glossary of terms, an extremely informative summary of taxonomic changes from S&S, a complete list of Costa Rican birds including a few not illustrated in the book, an index, and 2 plates of raptor flight illustrations. The list of Costa Rican birds could have been left out and saved 7-8 pages or it could have been used as a checklist instead. Also, I don't know why the raptor flight plates were included here and not in the raptor section. I guess it makes a nice quick reference, but it just seemed strange.

Overall, this book easily replaces Stiles and Skutch in the field. If you already own S&S, you will want to use this as a reference for natural history information, but you can leave it home when venturing out into the rainforest. I salute Garrigues and Dean for their hard work on what is surely a labor of love. I'm excited to go back to Costa Rica someday to really use the book in the field.

Some more Costa Rica videos

Buff-rumped Warbler at Arenal Hanging Bridges


Monteverde Hummingbirds (Coppery-headed Emerald, Purple-throated Mountain-gem, Green-crowned Brilliant, then the Emerald again)

Costa Rica: Day 5

The plan for day 5 was to spend the whole day in the world famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Monteverde is home to many high elevation species, the most famous being the Resplendent Quetzal. People come from all over to see this bird. After an early Costa Rican breakfast, we walked up to the Reserve to try to beat the crowds on the trail. The entrance was buzzing with local guides waiting for someone to pay for their service. Apparently, these jobs are a hot commodity in CR.



We started on some of the less popular trails in hopes of finding some avocado trees we had heard about from another guest. Avocado trees are a favorite place for Quetzals to hang out. No luck on the trees initially, but we did spook a Highland Tinamou from the trail. We continued searching the trails for birds. Birding in the thick rainforest can be very frustrating with many fleeting glimpses or "heard only" birds. We manuevered up and down the trails searching for birds. We were joined for a bit by a local who was hoping to be a guide someday. He pointed out some plants and a few insects. On a brief stop on the trail, I managed to find a Greta (clearwing butterfly) - SWEET!


Greta species

After getting twisted around by the trail map, we headed back toward the entrance. On the way, we encountered a group being lead by a local guide who was a little reluctant to share what they were looking at. It turned out to be a distant group of quetzals with at least one male and female. We had fleeting glimpses. After spending some time with the quetzals, we continued on the trail where we encountered Orange-bellied Trogon (now lumped with Collared Trogon I think) and a Gray-throated Leaftosser singing in plain view!


Gray-throated Leaftosser

Next, we took another trail in hopes of seeing Azure-hooded Jays. Unfortunately, we didn't see the jays, but we did see Buffy Tuftedcheek (great name) and Three-striped Warbler (very similar to our Worm-eating Warbler). We had wonderful views of the cloud forest from this trail as well.


A beautiful view of the cloud forest

We had to hightail it down the trail because lunch time had come and gone. We were starving. On the way down the trail, we saw Golden-bellied Flycatcher and Spotted Barbtail. Unfortunately, on the way down my camera also decided to stop working! Oh well...


A species of long-tailed skipper

After lunch, we headed back to the Reserve. We didn't see many new birds, but we did get some more looks at the quetzals. We never did get a perfect view of them. Nothing can compare to the quetzal that we saw perched 10' away from us on our trip to Savegre in 2005. Overall, I was disappointed with Monteverde. I think Savegre has a nicer lodge, a more open forest for birding, and less people. The day did end on a cool note though. I finally saw a tarantula in the wild. It was in a tunnel in the side of a hill by the trail. Did I mention how I'm deathly afraid of spiders but I'm still fascinated by them?

Costa Rica: Day 4

We started day 4 with some pre-breakfast birding around the lodge. It was a foggy and cloudy morning with few surprises except for a Bright-rumped Attila (lifer), a funny member of the flycatcher family. After breakfast, we packed up a van for our trip to the Trapp Family Lodge next to the world famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Now, there are two ways you can get there from Arenal. You can drive 6 hours on extremely bumpy, narrow, mountainous roads or you can take a water taxi across Lake Arenal and then drive 2 hours on bumpy, narrow, mountainous roads. The choice was obvious. On our way to the water taxi, we found some White-throated Magpie Jays! Love the curly-q!

The water taxi ride was pleasant and included birds like Great and Snowy Egrets, Mangrove Swallow, and Neotropic Cormorant. The drop-off point for the taxi proved to be surprisingly birdy. After trekking up a staircase made of sandbags, we were treated to an Orange-chinned Parakeet less than 10 feet away. Ruddy Ground-doves were everywhere. A few Slaty Antshrikes called like crazy from the brush on the side of the road, but would not come out to see us. At one point, they must have been a foot away from our feet but we couldn't see them!


Orange-fronted Parakeet

We boarded our vehicle for the arduous trek to Monteverde. It was indeed bumpy and mountainous. The drivers in CR must need to buy new shocks every month. Our driver did an amazing job getting us there relatively comfortably though.

The Trapp Family Lodge is a very nice place. Everything is made of decorative wood, the beds are comfortable, and each room has a patio door or balcony view of the yard. The restaurant is very nice with a good choice of food, good (at times leisurely) service, and great fresh juice. My only complaints are that you can't flush the toilet paper and our room had a strange chemical smell. The TP thing is common in the more remote lodges and is not a huge deal.





After a late lunch we headed to Monteverde Reserve. Luckily, Trapp lodge is only an 8/10 mile (slightly uphill) walk to the reserve. We encountered many inquisitive Slate-throated Redstarts on our way towards the reserve. The weather became interesting. It's not called a cloud forest for nothing. A constant mist sprayed against our raingear. We were essentially standing in a cloud. It was a bit of a nuisance, but I'll take it over pouring rain.

We didn't go in the reserve itself (that's for tomorrow), but we did visit the Hummingbird Gallery located right outside the entrance. No matter how many times I go to big hummingbird feeding stations, they never get old. Hummers whiz by your head, perch inches away, feed like crazy, fight for space at the feeders, and really put on a show. You can't beat it. We saw 11 species of hummingbird at these feeders including the endemic Coppery-headed Emerald, Purple-throated Mountain-gem, Violet Sabrewing, Stripe-tailed Hummingbird (new for me), and Magenta-throated Woodstar. Say those names three times fast.


Stripe-tailed Hummingbird


Magenta-throated Woodstar

We ended the day birding the road back to the lodge. After a great dinner (did I mention how good the steaks in Costa Rica are?), we had one more bird on our agenda. Bare-shanked Screech Owls have been heard at the lodge, so we decided to try for it. Keep in mind that it gets pretty chilly and windy at night in Monteverde. Tonight was no exception. The six of us standing in the bombarding winds with icy, horizontal rain pounding the backs of our legs must have been quite a sight. Needless to say, we didn't see the bird. On day 5, we head to the reserve!

Costa Rica: Day 1-3 Videos

Here are a few videos from the first 3 days in Costa Rica:


Close-up of Arenal Volcano


Montezuma Oropendula eating at a feeder


Some birds at the feeders at the Arenal Observatory Lodge

Costa Rica: Day 3

After a great day on the grounds of the Arenal Observatory Lodge, we woke up bright and early for some AM birding. Unfortunately, the guy whose job it is to stock the fruit feeders wasn't coming to work until 7:30, so we had very inactive feeders. We birded the grounds a bit and explored a new trail that was known to host a Thicket Antpitta. Antpittas are funny little birds with stubby tails, long legs, and an upright posture. They look like some kind of wind-up toy. Lucky for us, the Antpitta was singing away. With some whistled impersonations, we were able to get him to come check us out. These little guys are the definition of the word "skulk". Luckily, everyone got a great look.

After a scrumptious buffet breakfast with great fresh fruit, we headed to the rainforest canopy bridges about 30 minutes from the lodge. The area we went to has a series of steel suspension bridges with the highest being 100 meters off the forest floor.

The weather was a bit rainy and the birding started out a bit quietly. Lucky for us, a Morpho butterfly flew by and caused us to pause and admire it. I happened to look to my right and spotted a perched White-fronted Nunbird, a very difficult species to find. It was joined by another Nunbird that was beating the heck out of a giant, creepy, centipede-looking thing. The theory is that they beat their prey against a branch in order for the prey to excrete any toxins before the bird ingests them. Yummy!



We continued through the trails and across many of the bridges until we reached the top. There was a crippling view of the rainforest with a waterfall down below. Birds were few and far between with only some Tennessee Warblers and some random flycatchers. A local guide tipped us off to a perched Broad-billed Motmot, my second sighting of a member of the Motmot family. Unfortunately, it was too far for a picture.





We headed back towards the entrance. On the way back, we saw a very cooperative Buff-rumped Warbler that practically landed on my shoe and a Dusky Antbird. I also saw these workers below who were building a new trail. These guys were carrying some extremely heavy blocks and I give them huge amounts of credit.



We spent the afternoon birding the grounds of the lodge. We didn't see anything new that I can recall, but I did get this sweet picture of a Summer Tanager.



We closed out the evening with another nice dinner and the sounds of calling Pauraques. Tomorrow, it's off to the Monteverde Cloud Forest!

Costa Rica: Day 2

After breakfast, we boarded a small, but comfortable, van and headed to our next destination: The Arenal Observatory Lodge. The lodge, located about 2.5 hours from where we were, is situated right next to the Arenal Volcano. On our way to the lodge, we had to make one stop. We had received a tip that a field near the town of La Fortuna was hosting two rarities: Tropical Mockingbird and Southern Lapwing. These two birds are not even in the CR field guide! It took us a few minutes to find the Lapwing, but the Mockingbird was nowhere to be found. Another group of birders located a second Lapwing, but still no Mocker. As a consolation prize, our views of the Arenal Volcano from this spot were astounding!

We packed up the van and continued our journey to the lodge... and what a lodge it was! Nice rooms, balcony views of the volcano, good eats, lots of trails, and an amazing deck with a view of some fruit feeders. We dropped our bags off and headed to the feeders. Watermelon, banana, and canteloupe attracted Montezuma Oropendulas, Yellow-bellied Euphonias, Olive-backed Euphonias, and a host of different Tanagers. I also saw a life mammal, a Coati, searching for scraps under the feeders.


Feeders at Arenal (Blue-gray Tanager, Olive-backed Euphonia Female, Passerini's Tanager, Bananaquit)


A Coati

Lunch was decent. They make some surprisingly great french fries in CR. By the end of lunch, our views of the volcano were becoming clouded over and we wouldn't see the peak again for the remainder of our stay.


No more Arenal...

After lunch we hit the trails around the lodge. This lodge was historically used as a monitoring station for the volcano, so there are many buildings around. Our first find was a fruiting tree that attracted lots of tanagers: Bay-headed, Rufous-winged, Palm, Golden-hooded, Emerald, and Blue-gray at least. It was hopping. After getting our fill of tanagers, we continued towards our destination: The Waterfall Trail. On the way we encountered White-necked Jacobin and Violet-headed Hummingbird (lifer).


Violet-headed Hummingbird

The Waterfall Trail was our first exposure to rainforest birding. Birding in the rainforest is tough. The foliage is incredibly dense and many birds are only seen passing by quickly in back-lit feeding flocks high near the canopy. It's not for the faint of heart. On the trail we were greeted with our first view of one of the Antbirds - a single Ocellated Antbird - a great sighting. We also saw Slaty-tailed Trogon and heard several other birds. A steep decent to the waterfall lead to a view of our prized find - a Green-fronted Lancebill that loved to sit on a rock in the middle of a river. He would fly up, swirl around a bit, and then come back to the same rock over and over again. Funny little guy!



It was getting late so we headed back towards the hotel. We watched the sunset over Arenal Lake. We then enjoyed a pretty decent candlelight dinner. The sounds of the night were a calling Pauraque and many katydids. Until tomorrow!



P.S. I know I said I would have one post for each place we stayed, but I've been writing too much about each day. It'll be one post per day spent in CR.

Costa Rica: Day 1

I'm going to recap my trip to CR by using one entry for each different location we stayed in. On day 1, I arrived safely and on-time thanks to American Airlines. After standing in an immensely long line for "inmigracion", my passport was stamped and we were on our way. The three of us traveling from NJ met the rest of the gang coming from Virginia. We hopped in our little van and were on our way to a one night stay at the nearby Las Orquideas hotel.

My binoculars were out of my bag in seconds. I began scanning for birds but didn't see much in this urban environment. We arrived at the hotel where the yard was full of blooming vervain and many large trees. A much larger property with manicured gardens and other wild areas could be seen behind the hotel.

After dropping our luggage in our rooms, we gathered for some afternoon birding. My first bird was a Plain-capped Starthroat that Mike (our leader) had found on nest in a tree the day before. Nice bird! I had actually seen one in AZ in 2003, but it was still great to see. We added Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Tropical Kingbird, Great Kiskadee, and a ton of Black Vultures. My first lifer of the trip was a Steely-vented Hummingbird patrolling a patch of vervain - a real beauty. He was too quick for my camera though.

A huge, fruiting tree held Blue-crowned Motmots, Blue-gray Tanagers, and lots of Clay-colored Robins. A walk down towards a creek yielded a singing Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, Baltimore Orioles, Tennessee Warblers, and more Kiskadees. Darkness was approaching, so we closed out the evening in front of the big fruiting tree.

Darkness approached, but we had a plan. We had a great tip on a roosting spot for Mottled Owls - a large bamboo stand near the parking lot. Mike handed me the spotlight and we went looking. Mike did his best Mottled Owl impression while I scanned the bamboo stand with the light. No luck. I decided to move down the path a bit next to a parked car. I hit the spotlight... jackpot! I took the pic below.



After some drinks in their odd, Marilyn Monroe-themed bar and a nice Costa Rican dinner, we hit the hay. We awoke early to do some pre-breakfast birding. We saw most of the same birds we had seen the previous day. We added Blue-black Grassquit (lifer), House Wren, Blue-and-White Swallow, and several other birds to our trip list. Breakfast was great and included a troop of Rufous-naped Wrens playing around on the buffet. I also had the privelege of meeting Kevin Easley of Costa Rica Gateway, a well-known birder and tour guide. His maps were very helpful to our trip. On the way back from breakfast, I found the butterfly in the pic below on a window. At first I thought it was a dead leaf stuck to the window, then I noticed the legs and antennae. I believe it's one of the Leafwing butterflies. Please let me know if you have the true ID of this butterfly.



We packed up and headed off to the Arenal Volcano. Stop by later in the week for lots more pics and stories.

Costa Rica Top 10 Recap

Before I left for Costa Rica, I posted a lofty list of my 10 most wanted birds. Here's the outcome:

1. Rufous Motmot - Missed it again, but I did see Broad-billed Motmot and Turquoise-browed Motmot which is a wonderful consolation prize.
2. Great Curassow - If I had not come home early, I surely would have seen this.
3. Ornate Hawk-Eagle - It's a tough bird to see and we didn't see one.
4. Golden-browed Chlorophonia - Apparently, this bird is now called Blue-crowned Clorophonia. I was one of two people in my group who saw one fly past us. I got a nice look at it in flight. It's neon!
5. Scarlet Macaw - I'll never forget my first sighting of a pair of Scarlet Macaws flying in the distance. They were everywhere in the Punta Leona area. We saw some nesting as well.
6. King Vulture - Missed it again...
7. Yellow-billed Cotinga - We had an incredibly lucky sighting of one flying over the Rio Tarcoles bridge. Our amazing driver, Vernon, spotted it. Great scope views for all!
8. Mangrove Hummingbird - We took a boat tour of the mangroves and were lucky to see this endemic.
9. Giant Cowbird - It has evaded me once more...
10. White-tipped Sicklebill - My biggest regret is not seeing this bird due to not participating in the second leg of the trip.

All-in-all, not such a bad turnout for a very demanding list.

Back from CR (a bit early)

I'm back from Costa Rica a bit early. Here's me standing in front of the Arenal volcano. We could see the top when we first got there, but for the most part, it was clouded over. The locals hadn't seen the top for 11 days until the day we arrived.

The trip was awesome and Tico Tours did another excellent job planning it. Their local contacts really help make you feel like you're in good hands. Not counting "heard only" species, I saw 265 species including 85 lifers. I'll write more later with pictures. Unfortunately, my camera broke on day 4. Yuck.

Costa Rica Butterflies

I've had a few unidentified pictures of Costa Rican butterflies sitting around since my November trip there. I finally decided to put some effort into finding out what they were. After all, any good naturalist can't let something in nature go unnamed. Now, there IS a Costa Rican butterfly guide. Unfortunately, it's split into 2 volumes and is not very field friendly. It's also highly scientific. Strangely, Amazon only carries the second volume. After some discussion with the author of Firefly Forest about her recent CR butterfly identifications, I decided to put Google to good use. After some searching, I came across the wonderful site Neotropical Butterflies by Kim Garwood and Richard Lehman. Kim and Richard have taken a ton of pictures from Mexico through the Amazon. They've also published a book on the Butterflies of Northeastern Mexico and have an upcoming book on the butterflies of Brazil.

I recommend poking around the site and witnessing the amazing creations of Mother Nature. I especially love the clearwings and the swordtails. One of the coolest butterflies in the world has to be the Octauius Swordtail. With the help of their site, I was able to identify one of my pictures as the Trotschi Eyemark (see below).

Trotschi Eyemark

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to identify these others yet.


Satyr species


No clue...

If you happen to have the Costa Rican butterfly field guides, any help would be appreciated.

The Closest I'll get to an Ivory-billed Woodpecker

The debate about the existence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker presses on, but I've come close to seeing one myself. Well, sort of. I've had a close encounter with its cousin - the Pale-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus guatemalensis) of Central America. Many of us know about its other close cousin, the Pileated Woodpecker of the US. But, I think this one is an even closer relative for 3 reasons.

First, it is in the same genus (Campephilus) as the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (IBWP), making them genetic relatives. Second, it has a loud, double-rap drum similar to the infamous double-rap of the IBWP. Third, and this is just me talking here, the name "Pale-billed" is almost like saying "Ivory-billed". In any event, seeing this bird in Costa Rica was really a treat. It flew in close and perched horizontally on a mossy branch. It had a really life-like eye that turned and looked in all directions. It's fiery red crest glowed against the dark green of the rainforest. I can only imagine what it must be like to see the Ivory-billed!

Can this be MY backyard? - A Review of Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica

Rancho Naturalista... the name just flows off your tongue... kind of like the drool that flows off my tongue every time I think about this amazing eco-lodge in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Rancho Naturalista is owned by an American family who arrived in Costa Rica for religious purposes and ended up discovering eco-tourism. Last November, I had the pleasure of spending 3 days seeking out as many of the over 400 species of birds that have been seen there that I could find.

Birding
Rancho sits at 3000 feet in the pre-mountain rain forest in the Caribbean zone. The property is surrounded by a network of well-maintained trails that climb through the surrounding mountains and pastures. Resident guides (who are only paid in room, board, food, and tips) are available to take you on the trails. These guides are amazing and are here truly because they love birding and want to learn the birds of CR. While I was there, our guide was a Dutchman named Vincent who had experience birding in Europe, Israel and briefly in the US. He was friendly and very knowledgeable even though he'd only been there 2 months.

If you have never birded in the rainforest, it's very different than birding the typically more open woods of the US. Birds tend to feed in small flocks. Tanagers, flycatchers, and manakins quickly move through the tops of trees, so you really have to be on your "A" game to be able to get on the birds and pick out the field marks. It doesn't help that a lot of the time they are backlit, behind a tree, or behind a leaf. It takes some getting used to, but makes for a fun challenge.

The trick to finding the greatest diversity of species on the trails (and birds lower to the ground) is to locate the army ant swarms that move up and down the mountain. No, the birds don't eat the army ants, but they do eat all the insects that are running for their lives from this war machine. Army ant specialists such as the Antbirds, Ant-thrushes, Antwrens, Ant-Tanagers, and Antshrikes are mostly found around these swarms. At times, there can be 20-30 species of birds attending one swarm. So, you will spend a lot of time walking the (sometimes muddy) trails in search of these swarms. You won't always find the army ant swarms, but many birds can still be found away from the swarms.

There are also two special treats within the forest. The first is a group of hummingbird feeders with lovely canopied viewing benches. These attract Violet-Crowned Woodnymphs, White-Necked Jacobin, Green Hermit, Red-Footed Plumeleteer, and... oh yeah... SNOWCAP! This is one of the best places on earth to see the dainty, gorgeous Snowcap.

The other treat is the hummingbird pools. These are a series of small pools where many hummingbirds come to take a dip in the water. Snowcap frequently visits along with Purple-Crowned Fairy and many other birds. It's very cool to see a hummer take a plunge into one of these pools! This is the only place our group saw Purple-Crowned Fairy.

But wait, there's more! My favorite part of Rancho Naturalista is the balcony. With a wonderful scenic backdrop, you have a clear view of fruit feeders and hummingbird feeders. Over 200 species have been seen from this deck alone. Amazingly comfortable chairs, a coffee pot, and a nearby beer fridge make this the place to be. Each morning, I woke up and immediately went to the balcony. It was also the place where I saw last light each night. This is the ultimate backyard birding. The hummers, such as Green-Breasted Mango, Green-Crowned Brilliant, and Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird, allow you to get inches away from them. This makes froms ome great photo opportunities - see below. Collared Aracaris, Montezuma and Chestnut-headed Oropendulas, Gray-headed Chachalacas, Hoffman's and Black-Cheeked Woodpeckers, and a plethora of tanagers visit the fruit feeders. Migrant warblers, flycatchers, and many other birds feed from the surrounding trees and ground as well.

The Balcony	A tree of fruit
Hummingbird feeders	View from balcony w/ Great Kiskadee
Violet-Crowned Woodnymph	Collared Aracari

The gardens around the buildings also attract some hummingbirds that don't use the feeders such as Black-crested Coquette, Green Thorntail, and Little Hermit.

At night, Mottled Owl can be heard and in the early morning the other-wordly sounds of Great Tinamou, Little Tinamou, and Rufous Motmot (my favorite call) can be heard. I've only scratched the surface of the birding opportunities on the grounds of the lodge. They also offer day excursions to other nearby areas such as Rio Tuis and CATIE that host species not easily seen at Rancho. These excursions are usually taken in an older jeep or truck, but a little discomfort and a bumpy ride is worth the wonderful birds.

Accommodations
Ok, so it's clear there is great birding here. But what are the facilities like? The lodge is made of several buildings. Some are divided into 2 separate rooms, each with 2 beds, 2 dressers, and a bathroom. Others are small cottages with 1 queen-sized bed, a dresser, a couch, and a bathroom. All buildings have a hammock and 2 lounge chairs on their deck. I stayed in one of the 2-bedroom buildings.

The rooms are not air conditioned or heated, but they do have ceiling fans. It gets moderately cool at night, so this is usually not a problem either way. The floors are not carpeted due to the high humidity. The bed was comfortable. The rooms were very clean, although the very high ceilings attracted some spider webs (with residents!) and moths.

The one strange thing about staying at Rancho is the bathroom situation. You are not allowed to flush toilet paper - period. Each room has a small wastebasket next to the toilet for used toilet paper. It takes a little getting used to, but it's not really that bad. Just make sure you wrap it up real good and it won't smell. The wastebasket is emptied every day.

The showers are roomy and have good water pressure and temperature. The sink is fine and gives you a great place to fill a water bottle (yes, water there is safe to drink, regularly tested, and quite tasty).

Each room has a laundry basket too. If you fill the basket, your laundry will be washed and folded at a cost of $10 a load.

Special note: They recently built a new cottage that is gorgeous. It's made of beautiful lacquered logs. It has a close view of the rainforest and its own set of hummingbird feeders.

Food
Your stay includes 3 meals a day. Meals are eaten family-style in the main building and all guests eat together. The breakfasts usually feature eggs, some type of meat, gallo pinto (rice & beans), fresh fruit, and fresh fruit juice (papaya, guava, and other local fruits - amazing!). Costa Rican coffee is always available. Lunches include some type of local or Americanized entree, soup or salad, more fresh fruit, and wonderful cookies and breads for dessert. Dinner is similar to lunch, but usually has a more special dessert like flan or tres leches. Being a bit of a foodie, I was amazingly surprised with the quality of the food. It was delicious and truly home-cooked. If you're a very picky eater, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding something since there are usually multiple items on the table.

The wait staff is very friendly, although many do not speak English. There is usually a bilingual staff member around to translate for you. You can always use it as an opportunity to practice your Spanish with the amazingly friendly Ticos.

We did not have a repeated lunch or dinner meal while there. In fact, our guide told us that he'd been there 2 months and hadn't had the same dessert twice! This was truly a welcome treat because I didn't know what type of food to expect. When you hear the food bell ringing at Rancho, you will definitely be running for the food.

Beer, soda, and bottled water are available in a fridge near the balcony. There's a list where you log your beer purchases and square up at the end of your stay.

Negatives
Other than the toilet paper thing, there aren't a whole lot of negatives. One complaint I have is that it is very difficult to call to the US from here (and maybe CR in general). They have a regular phone that I could not get to work with my phone card. The only other option is a phone that you swipe a credit card in. I talked to my girlfriend in NJ for about 10 minutes and it set me back around $50!!! Be wary.

Other Highlights
At Rancho, I was able to satiate my interest in all things natural. Many species of butterflies and moths can be found there. We spotted several Blue Morphos in the forest, among the many unidentified butterflies. At night, I found great fun walking around with my flashlight seeking strange insects and moths under the eaves of buildings. I found huge crickets (the one below is about 6 inches long), katydids, interesting spiders, millipedes, and other unique insects. Snakes, including the deadly Fer de Lance and Eyelash Viper, can be found in the forest if you're (un)lucky.


Conclusion
If you're used to the Hilton and the Marriott, this may not be the place for you. But, if you're ready for a true taste of tropical birding with wonderful staff, amazing food, and some of the most comfortable birding around, this is an amazing place to stay. I understand that getting reservations during the dry season (Dec. - Mar.) can be difficult. Tour groups like Field Guides or VENT may be your best option for visiting here. So, lace up your boots and enjoy the trip.