Pre-Trip Workshops: Tuesdays, January 10 and 17, 6:30-8:30pm

Join Executive Director Glenn Phillips and Richard Garrigues, author of Birds of Costa Rica, for a tour of some of the most diverse regions of this birders' paradise. Our 2012 tour begins in the Caribbean Lowlands at world-class tropical rainforest research station La Selva—one of the areas of Costa Rica richest in endemic Birds, and home to the snowy cotinga, red-footed plumeleteer, and great potoo. We'll then wind our way up through the Talamanca Foothills, visiting the "hummingbird pools" of Turrialba, and spend our last days in lovely San Gerardo de Dota—home of the resplendent quetzal. Along the way, other likely sightings include scarlet macaw as well as trogons, toucans, aracaris, antshrikes, and much more. Includes two pre-trip workshops, lodging, local transportation, local guide, all meals, and all park fees. Limited to 12. $2,495 ($350 single room supplement). To register or learn more, please contact Tod Winston at 212-691-7483 or twinston@nycaudubon.org.

DAY ONE:   Arrival in Costa Rica and transfer to the Hotel Bougainvillea.

DAY TWO:   We'll begin the day with an hour or so of birding in the hotel garden, which, in addition to being beautifully landscaped, offers a good introduction to many of the country's common bird species, such as clay-colored thrush, blue-gray tanager, tropical kingbird, rufous-tailed hummingbird, and rufous-collared sparrow. We'll also hope to find some species that we might not see elsewhere on our trip, including ferruginous pygmy-owl, rufous-naped wren, rufous-capped warbler, white-winged dove, white-eared ground-sparrow, and the stunning blue-crowned motmot.

After breakfast, we'll load the bus and cross over the Continental Divide to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. Just before leaving the foothills of the Central Volcanic Cordillera, we'll make a short stop to check some flowering shrubs for hummingbird activity. Among the possibilities are violet-headed hummingbird, green thorntail, violet-crowned woodnymph, bronze-tailed plumeleteer, and hopefully black-crested coquette and snowcap!

Not long afterwards, we'll reach the Caribbean lowlands and our hotel, Hacienda Sueño Azul. The hotel grounds have several ponds that together with the nearby Puerto Viejo River should attract a variety of herons and egrets, including fasciated tiger-heron, and also ringed, Amazon, and green kingfishers, and perhaps even sunbittern. We'll also have our first exposure to "garden variety" birds of the Caribbean lowlands such as slaty-tailed trogon, keel-billed toucan, black-cheeked woodpecker, Passerini's tanager, and Montezuma oropendola.

DAY THREE:   We'll spend the day at the renowned La Selva Biological Station, run by the Organization for Tropical Studies. An extensive system of cement trails offers easy access to primary tropical forest. If only the birding were so easy! Rain forest birding can be tough, but with luck and persistence we could well be rewarded with sightings of species such as great tinamou, great curassow, semiplumbeous hawk, great green macaw, rufous-tailed jacamar, and white-collared manakin, to name just a few. Of course, we'll also bird several open areas of the property where we may get to enjoy views of the likes of cinnamon becard, band-backed wren, golden-hooded tanager, green honeycreeper, black-cowled oriole, and olive-backed euphonia. Overnight at Hacienda Sueño Azul.

DAY FOUR:   Today we'll return to the foothills and experience the forest in a unique way aboard the Rainforest Aerial Tram. Among the many birds we'll hope to see are several regional endemics: lattice-tailed trogon, rufous-winged woodpecker, streak-crowned antvireo, stripe-breasted wren, black-and-yellow tanager, and maybe even bare-necked umbrellabird. Overnight at Hacienda Sueño Azul.

DAY FIVE:   We travel to Rancho Naturalista in the Tuis Valley, above the town of Turrialba, and with views of the smoldering Turrialba Volcano in the distance. Of course, even if clouds don't obscure the view, it can be difficult to focus that far away when hummingbirds are swarming at feeders just a few feet away and a variety of other tropical species are devouring bananas put out in the yard just beyond! In addition to seeing some familiar faces, the hummers could include white-necked Jacobin, green-breasted mango, and green-crowned brilliant. And we'll likely find gray-headed chachalaca, collared araçari, great kiskadee, brown Jay, white-lined tanager, and various other species pecking away at the bananas.

One truly memorable experience of a visit to Rancho Naturalista is spending an hour or so in the late afternoon watching hummingbirds coming in to bathe in small pools along a forest stream. Overnight at Rancho Naturalista.

DAY SIX:   Birding in the forest at Rancho is a lot more challenging than the balcony birding, but it's the only way to see the many species that rarely if ever venture out of their shadowy habitat. Some of the birds we'll be looking for on our forest walks include tawny-throated leaftosser, brown-billed scythebill, dull-mantled antbird, scale-crested pygmy-tyrant, tawny-chested flycatcher, black-headed nightingale-thrush, and tawny-capped euphonia. Overnight at Rancho Naturalista.

DAY SEVEN:   Today we journey up into the Cordillera de Talamanca for our first encounter with the endemic-rich highland avifauna. Nearly half of the resident bird species here are found only in the mountains of Costa Rica and adjacent western Panama, among these are fiery-throated hummingbird, volcano hummingbird, ruddy treerunner, black-and-yellow silky-flycatcher, and golden-browed chlorophonia. Our destination is the valley of San Gerardo de Dota at an elevation of 7,300 feet. The garden of the Trogon Lodge can be quite good for birding and might offer fine views of white-throated mountain-gem, spot-crowned woodcreeper, black-billed and ruddy-capped nightingale-thrushes, and slaty flowerpiercer. We'll also venture into the magnificent oak forests in search of black guan, silvery-fronted tapaculo, tufted flycatcher, ochraceous pewee, collared redstart, and of course, the region's star attraction, resplendent quetzal. Overnight at Trogon Lodge.

DAY EIGHT:   We'll have a full day to explore the scenic highlands and continue our search for feathered creatures including spotted wood-quail, sulphur-winged parakeet, emerald toucanet, torrent tyrannulet, American dipper, black-faced solitaire, and flame-throated warbler. Overnight at Trogon Lodge.

DAY NINE:   After a final bout of morning birding in the San Gerardo Valley, we'll journey to the highest point along the entire Pan-American Highway—at 10,800 feet—and look for the range-restricted timberline wren, sooty thrush, and volcano junco before returning to the Central Valley and the international airport for your return flight home.

To learn more about Ecotourism click here.

Please contact Tod Winston at twinston@nycaudubon.org or (212) 691-7483 to register or learn more.