After leaving San Luis we traveled on the Interamerican Highway towards the Pacific coast.  Our next lodge was Villa Lapas near the small community of Tarcoles.  The lodge was less basic than Laguna de Lagarto, but not as upscale as Lomas del Volcan.  It did have air conditioning which was a definte plus as  both heat and humidity were much greater than in the cloud forest near Arenal Volcano.  The lodge also had a hot tub, swimming pool, large outdoor dining area and two bars.  

Villa Lapas is in an area where the scarlet macaw is relatively common.  We frequently heard them as they noisily flew over the lodge.  

Scarlet Macaw

The grounds were productive for bird watching, but less so for photography.  I found a fascinated tiger heron foraging in the stream adjacent to the lodge as well as a Leeson's motmot and a a linnaited woodpecker on the grounds. 

Fasciated Tiger Heron

The next day we were scheduled to take both an early morning and evening boat tour on the Tarcoles River.  The Tarcoles River is known for it large population of oversize crocodiles.  We had previously experienced a Tarcoles River boat tour on another visit to Costa Rica.  Based on that experience, my expectations were low.  It turned out to be a very worthwhile photo experience.

Basking Crocodile

Crocodile inspecting the lunch menu 

Becky and I were the only passengers on a boat which could easily accommodate 50 passengers.  Our morning guide was an excellent birder and understood photographers needs.  He did his best to get us close in good light with a decent background.  We ended up getting all five species of kingfishers (Ringed, Green, Amazon, Belted and American Pygmy).  We observed lots of species of waterbirds including several species of herons and egrets.  We photographed magnificent frigate bird, southern lapwing, black-necked stilt, bare-throated tiger heron, turquoise-browed motmot, mangrove swallow, anhinga, double-striped thick-knee, yellow-headed caracara and many others.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Turquoise-Browed Motmot - Ventral View

Turquoise Browed Motmot - Dorsal View

Southern Lapwing

Tricolored Heron

Roseate Spoonbill

Ringed Kingfisher

Ringed Kingfisher with Breakfast

Magnificent Frigatebird

Amazon Kingfisher

Mangrove Yellow Warbler

Green Heron

The afternoon cruise was also productive.  We got stuck on a sandbar and both guides jumped in the river to try and rock the boat free.  We got free and as we were backing out a very large crocodile surfaced nearby.  We saw several crab-eating raccoons emerging from the mangroves to search for food just before dark.

Crab-Eating Raccoon digging for crabs.

Double-Striped Thick-Knee at nest

Displaying Great-Tailed Gackle

Common Blackhawk Fishing

Boat-Billed Heron

Great Egret in Breeding Plumage

Barred Antshrike (Male)

Bare-Throated Tiger Heron

Bare-Throated Tiger Heron Sunning

Anhinga - Drying his wings

American Pygmy Kingfisher - I am really amazed at this image.  It was almost dark and he was very, very close.  Shutter speed was ridiculously slow.  He held very still even as the guides were pulling the mangrove limbs away to allow a clean shot.

The next day we met our guide Alvaro in the community of Orotina to search for dry tropical forest birds.  We saw, but were unable to photograph, the long-tailed manakin.  We photographed both the Pacific screech owl and the ferruginous pygmy owl.  We also photographed the gartered trogon and black-headed trogon.  We found pair of bat falcons.  However, I was not able to get more than a documentation photo of these small predators.

Pacific Screech Owl  The one on the right was not enthusiastic about the photographer.

Orange-Billed Sparrow

Ferruginous Pygmy Owl

Rose-Throated Becard

Gartered Trogon

Black-Headed Trogon

Hoffman's Woodpecker

We left Orotino and headed back to Villa Lapas and got caught up in horrible traffic.  It took us several hours to travel a few kilometers.  The friday afternoon before Easter in a catholic country is not a good time to travel.  The next day we headed toward Savegre Lodge in the higher mountains of Costa Rica.

It was about a four hour drive from Villa Lapas to Savegre.  We followed the coastal highway to the community of Dominical and then headed up into the mountains.  Stunning mountain scenery, but we were in and out of the clouds at over 6,000 feet before we turned off on the steep, windy access road to Savegre Lodge in San Gerardo de Dota.  This cloud forest is the home of numerous mountain species including the stunning resplendent quetzal.  Early the next morning our guide Melvin took us to an active quetzal nest tree.  They are cavity nesters in the trogon family and have extremely long back streamers that are several feet long.  The male is stunning.  We observed at a distance the adults bringing food items to the nest.  The distance was long and the light was poor.  I did get a few images that I like, but a camera with better low-light capability might have been useful.

Resplendent Quetzal (Male)

Resplendent Quetzal (Female)

Melvin invited us to shoot at his garden located on the Savegre property.  He had numerous fruit and hummingbird feeders.  Baltimore oriole, long-tailed silky flycatcher, lesser violetear, volcano hummingbird, slaty flower piercer, and a pair of nesting southern emerald toucanet kept me busy.  We took a hike with Melvin and captured a few frames of a spotted wood quail under difficult lighting.  Further, up the mountain we encountered and photographed a collared redstart.  One of these striking little warblers was singing and displaying all around us.  I was able to finally capture him in good light with a decent background.

Spotted Wood Quail

Volcano Hummingbird

Talamanca Hummingbird (formerly Magnificent Hummingbird)

Collared Redstart

Long-Tailed Silky Flycatcher

Tropical Mockingbird

I visited Melvin's garden for a few hours the next day and was rewarded with numerous tanager photos including scarlet-rumped, silver-throated, palm, and blue-gray.  Spectacular flame-colored tanager and acorn woodpeckers were abundant.  Toucanets are also cavity nesters and  I was able to photograph the adults bringing food items to the nest on several occasions.  One of those items was a large lizard.

Tennessee Warbler

Rufous-Collared Sparrow

Baltimore Oriole (Ventral View)

Baltimore Oriole (Dorsal View)

Silver-Throated Tanager

Lesser Violetear

Southern Emerald Toucanet

Southern Emerald Toucanet with a large lizard.

Blue-Gray Tanager

Acorn Woodpecker

Later that day we visited Batsu Feeders at an adjacent property.  Excellent covered shooting areas with nicely setup fruit and hummingbird feeders.  Because the background was a distant forested mountain, the backgrounds here were the best of the trip.  Many of the same species were present as we had found in Melvin's garden, but we added a few new ones including yellow-throated brush finch, large-footed finch, sulphur-winged parakeet, chestnut-capped brush finch, and rose breasted grosbeak. 

Chestnut-Capped Brush Finch

Flame-Colored Tanager

Large-Footed Finch

Yellow-Throated Brush Finch

Sulphur-Winged Parakeet

Slaty Flowerpiercer

Southern Emerald Toucanet

On our last morning at Savegre, I loaded up my largest lens with attached teleconverter and attempted to improve on my previous quetzal images.  I was able to capture numerous distant shots of the male coming to the nest cavity and feeding the single young in the nest.  Lots of action, but again low light and not quite enough shutter speed to freeze the action.  As we were leaving Savegre I was able to photographed another life bird, the mountain thrush, as well as a tufted flycatcher.

Resplendent Quetzal feeding chick

Resplendent Quetzal

Mountain Thrush

We left Savegre and rejoined the Interamerican highway towards San Jose and our airport hotel (Hotel Bougainvillea).  The navigation app was absolutely essential in traversing San Jose suburbs to reach our destination.  We made no less than 35 turns as we wound our way through city streets and neighborhoods.  An Alamo car rental representative stopped by and collected the car and phone that afternoon after we visited a nearby Covid testing facility.  At the time of our travel a negative Covid test was required to re-enter the U.S.  

Hotel Bougainvillea turned out to be much more than an airport hotel.  We enjoyed good food, a comfortable room and friendly staff.  I also enjoyed the 13 acres of gardens associated with the hotel.  In a couple of hours I photographed brown, jay, Hoffman's woodpecker, mottled owl, chestnut-sided warbler, red-eyed vireo, rufous-naped wren, crested caracara, and Swainson's thrush.  A very pleasant way to spend our last hours in Costa Rica.

Rufous-Naped Wren

Mottled Owl - I really wish that one strip of bamboo was not crossing in front of him.

Chestnut-Sided Warbler

Red-Eyed Vireo

After an excellent breakfast, an english speaking representative of Aratinga Tours transported us to the airport which was about 30 minutes away.  All in all a very smooth, well planned photo tour.  I took over 14,000 photos during our two week trip.  I ended up with 160 total bird species for the trip including 82 life birds.  Consider using Aratinga Tours for your Costa Rica travel.