Talari Lodge
Located just 9 kms outside of San Isidro de El General heading into La Bonita de Rivas the Talari Lodge is a basic hotel offering excellent birding in the grounds.
The property is composed of gardens and a great combination of fruit trees, secondary forest, and the edge of El General River. Early morning and late afternoon walks
can be very productive including the famous Turquoise Cotinga, Fiery-billed Aracari, and the little White-crested Coquette.
The rooms in Talari each offer a small porch with nice charis to sit and watch birds, they also have private bath with solar heated water, fan, and little fridge.
A nice swimming pool is also available for guests just a minute walk from the rooms. The restaurant is open at meal times and it is found within a short walk from the rooms.
Climate is quite pleasant, the drier months are from January to April, afternoon showers become common in May and intensify by August to November.
The early morning and the late afternoon are the best times for birding as temperatures are quite pleasant, the nights are usually a bit cooler which is typical of The Valley of El General and in particular La Bonita de Rivas which is no far from the Talamanca Mountain Range Foothills.
A total of two and ideally three nights will be good to explore this vast area, not just the grounds of the hotel but to visit Los Cusingos Biological Preserve.
Specialty birds of Talari Lodge’s Grounds:
Gray-necked Wood-Rail
Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush.
Blue-crowned Motmot
Long-billed Starthroat
Scaly-breasted Hummingbird
Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
Garden Emerald
White-crested Coquette
Red-legged Honeycreeper
Green Honeycreeper
Blue Dacnis
Fiery-billed Aracari
Turquoise Cotinga
Pearl Kite
Scaled Pigeon
Olivaceous Piculet
Common Potoo
Common Parauque
Fork-tailed Flycatcher
White-throated Flycatcher
Lesser Elaenia
Yellow-bellied Seedeater
Red-crowned Woodpecker
Pale-breasted Spinetail
Bran-colored Flycatcher
Cherrie’s Tanager
Streaked Saltator
Tropical Screech-Owl
—————————————————————————
Los Cusingos Biological Preserve
The Preserve was originally known as the farm “Los Cusingos”, after the small Fiery-billed Aracari (Pteroglossus frantzii).
It was acquired in 1941 by the botanist and ornithologist Dr. Alexander F. Skutch. A graduate of Johns Hopkins (1928), Dr. Skutch came to Costa Rica while studying the birds of the Tropics. His love for tropical nature and its people led him to settle in Quizarrá in the Valley of El General, Costa Rica.
After a long and fruitful life of study, research and humanistic meditation, concentrated in his home, Los Cusingos, Dr. Skutch offered to sell his farm to the TSC, with the hope that this organization would further his line of work in the Tropics.
Thus, in 1993, after a fundraising campaign, the TSC acquired the 78 hectares that today constitute Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary. Presently, the Sanctuary is dedicated not only to ecological tourism, bird observation and study, but also to meditation, as a historical place where this great scientist formulated the majority of his research and wrote outstanding works in the fields of natural science and philosophy..
Dr. Skutch and his wife Pamela Lankaster lived many years in the Los Cusingos farm and Sanctuary, where they built a beautiful rustic farm house which today stands in perfect harmony with the natural environment, bringing to life scenes of the rural Costa Rica of the turn of the 20th Century. A life of love and respect shared by Alexander Skutch and Pamela Lankaster inspired the novel “Merenda: A Romance of the Tropical Forests” published in 1997.
Mrs. Skutch proferred her love for nature to the gardens surrounding the house, following in her father´s footsteps when he established the Lankester Botanical gardens near the city of Cartago, presently owned and managed by the University of Costa Rica. She passed away on the 23rd of June, of 2001.
Dr. Skutch conducted many observations and studies at the Sanctuary about the characteristics, biological cycles and behavior of birds. The many years of study and meditation led him to reflect on the biological imperatives of life and the many natural mysteries encountered by man when he communes with nature. During this time period when he was being most productive, he wrote on the ethics and philosophy of the human species. Some of his most outstanding works include: Moral Foundation: An Introduction to Ethics, The Stories of a Naturalist, The Ascent of Life. Through the years, many scientists and students of natural philosophy became acquainted with his work and had an opportunity to visit him in his bird garden and meditation sanctuary.
Birding Los Cusingos
The preserve has wonderful access for visitors, a newly improved trail has a wonderful gravel surface that keeps you away from the mud and allows you to have more time for birding instead of looking down so much. Around the Dr. Skutch’s house you can do a lof of birding, several species manikins come out of the forest to feed on Melastome Trees, and honeycreepers and dacnises feed around the area all day. Banana feeders attract also Speckled Tanagers, Silver-throated Tanagers, and Bay-headed Tanagers. Long-billed Starthroat, Green-breasted Mango, Purple-crowned Fairy are quite common around the open areas and forest edge. Perhaps the most attractive bird here is the Turquoise Cotinga, being now days the best spot to see it. Once you get into the forest you can explore a good patch of primary forest that can produce Baird’s, Violaceous, Black-throated and Slaty-tailed Trogons. Mixed flocks including Gray-headed Tanager, Slaty Antwren, Bicolored Antbird, Ruddy Woodcreeper, Northern Barred Woodcreeper. This is also a good place for manikins with common sightings of Blue-crowned, Red-capped, White-ruffed, and Orange-collared Manakins.
Turquoise Cotinga
Bicolored Hawk
Pearl Kite
Black-faced Anthursh
Black-hooded Antshrike
Bicolored Antbird
Riverside Wren
Rufous-breasted Wren
Purple-crowned Fairy
White-crested Coquette
Red-capped Manakin
Blue-crowned Manakin
White-ruffed Manakin
Orange-collared Manakin
Baird’s Trogon
Ruddy Woodcreeper
Tawny-winged Woodcreeper
Spotted Woodcreeper
Bicolored Antbird
Ruddy Quail-Dove
Golden-crowned Spadebill
Rufous Piha
—————————————————————————
Rio Magnolia Lodge, La Alfombra, Coastal Range
Río Magnolia is a beautiful jungle lodge situated on a 280 acre property of rainforest / cloud forest on the Coastal Range around the Alto de San Juan. Sorrounded by a lush rainforest in transition to cloud forest the site is magnificent and provides great habitat for wildlife.
The lodge is located right on one of the routes for the Fila Costera Christmas Bird Count which is sponsored and organized by Tropical Feathers, here we have obtained the highest route count for the whole count circle area reaching 192 species in 12 hours.
Rio Magnolia is located near the small town of La Alfombra overlooking Costa Rica’s southern Pacific Ocean, it offers nice rooms each with different characteristics, you can choose from rooms in the main lodge and also separate cabins.
Birding here is quite productive, from the balcony you can see Barred Hawk, Swallow-tailed Kite, White Hawk, Double-thooted Kite, Ornate Hawk Eagle, Black Hawk Eagle, and many more special raptors.
Other bird species include:
Golden-naped Woodpecker
Red-crowned Woodpecker
Golden-olive Woodpecker
Brown-billed Scythebill
Black-striped Woodcreeper
Spotted Barbtail
Inmaculate Antbird
Bicolored Antbird
Chestnut-headed Oropendola
Thrushlike Schiffornis
Scaly-breasted Wren
Golden-winged Warbler
Brown-hooded Parrot
Black-hooded Antshrike
White-throated Shrike-Tanager
Dot-winged Antwren
Slaty Antwren
Tawny-crowned Greenlet
Turquoise Cotinga
We will be happy to provide you with directions on how to get to Rio Magnolia Lodge as well as assist you with your bookings. Tropical Feathers can also arrange transport to this location. Let us know if you need a birding guide with advance.
—————————————————————————
Monte Azul Lodge
“Starting in October of 2007, Monte Azul Hotel hired Costa Rica birding experts, Noel Ureña and Luis Sánchez Arguedas, to perform a year-long study of the bird population on our 125 acre Nature Preserve.
As a result of the team's field observations, the Monte Azul birding database includes 231 currently identified species of birds categorized under 41 family groups, among which are found 38 species of latitudinal migrants, 186 resident species and two species whose populations include both resident and migratory categories. 141 species are considered abundant, 67 as common and 18 less common.
Among outstanding observations are the facts that all five species of Honeycreepers reported in Costa Rica are found at Monte Azul, as are 23 species of Hummingbirds.”
I had the chance, with my friend Luis Sanchez, to work for a year on a bird inventory for this property and I have to say it is a great birding area. With a typical bird species mix proper of middle elevations of Talamanca, this site offers great mornings and afternoons for any birdwatcher, but not only that, the site has great potential for relaxation.
Particularly exceptional is the presence of birds considered difficult to spot including the Turquoise Cotinga (Cotinga ridwayi) and the White-crested Coquette, both frequently observed in Monte Azul around strangler figs and inga trees respectively.
Finely decorated with original fine art from many different artists the rooms are exquisite, surrounded by nature and the sound of the Chirripo River the stay in Monte Azul Botique Hotel willbe really a great experience.
The dining service is to be enjoyed here, you can enjoy creative dishes using local products and free range meats (whenever possible), fresh seafood, all prepared in exotic and delicious recipes combining Latin American, European and Asian cuisines. The menu changes according to the season and what is fresh that day. Café Blue will gladly cater a menu specifically to your likes and special needs if you request it in advance.
Road sides, open pastures with scattered trees, and forest trails are available to explore.
Specialty birds include:
White-crested Coquette
Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
White-tailed Emerald
Green-crowned Brilliant
Red-headed Barbet
Turquoise Cotinga
Sulfur-winged Parakeet
Barred Hawk
Speckled Tanager
Red-legged, Green, and Shinning Honeycreepers.
Blue and Scarlet-thighed Dacnises
White-throated Robin
Scaly-throated Foliage-Gleaner
Golden-browed Chlorophonia
Elegant Euphonia
Scaly-breasted Wren
Streaked Saltator
