Majestic Feathers is looking for birders that would be interested in going to Costa Rica with us in July, July 8 to 21, 2011 on a 14 day birding tour. This length of tour is 12 days of birding with a day to travel to Costa Rica to start the tour and a day for travel back home.
Silver-throated Tanager
We want to know if there is enough interest out there in the birding community before we go forward with formulating an itinerary, contacting hotels and eco-lodges, and arranging for transportation. So I am sharing this here on our blog and we have also sent an email to all of the birders on our contact list.
Temperatures in July range from the low to upper 80’s occassionally into the low 90's with humidity levels comparable to those of the southeastern United States during the summer months. Temperatures and humidity vary depending on the altitude where we are birding. In fact a light jacket is advised for the cloud forest.
Biting/annoying insects are minimal.
Though there currently isn’t an itinerary I want to let you know about the areas of the country where we will have our lodging and go birding. Here is a brief description:
By arranging our itinerary so that we bird in seven different life zones we may see as many as 380 species of birds in just 12 days of birding. We get you into out of the way places to see endemic birds, shy forest species, and a myriad of others.
Here are the life zones that we bird and a few of the birds that we usually see in each of them.
Tropical Dry Deciduous Forest: as an example you will be birding in the Carara National Park. There are leks of the Orange Collared Manakins here as well as Scarlet Macaws, Royal Flycatchers, Chestnut-backed Antbirds, Great Tinamous, White-whiskered Puffbirds, several species of trogon including Baird’s, and scores more species inhabit this very great birding spot. We will be in the Central Pacific area during this portion of the trip.
Lower Montane Rainforest and Moist Forest: Keep your eyes peeled here for the Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant, Olivaceous Piculet and as many as ten tanager species in this habitat. We will be in Puntarenus Province, the southern Pacific area near the Panama border.
Crimson-fronted Parakeet
Premontane Tropical Wet, Rain and Moist Forest: This is the habitat at Braulo Carrillo Nat’l Park and you will spend part of a day birding here in hopes of spotting; Black-crowned Antpitta, Ornate Hawk Eagle and Lattice-tailed Trogon to name a few of the 500 species possible here.
Montane and Upper Montane Tropical Wet and Rain Forests (cloud forest): The gem of this region is the Resplendent Quetzal. The bird species found here includes, but is not limited to; Elegant Euphonia, Spangled Cheeked Tanager, Yellow-bellied Siskin, Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher, and seven hummingbird species including the startlingly beautiful Fiery-throated Hummingbird. This terrain is located in the Talamanca Mountain Range.
Green Violet-ear
Tropical Moist Forests: During our tour, anytime we cross the Continental Divide, we bird fragments of Tropical Moist Forest scattered amid Dry Deciduous Forest. Birds commonly found here are; Orange-Fronted Parakeets, White-Fronted Parrots, Long-tailed Manakin, Rufous and White Wren, Keel-billed Toucan and White-throated Magpie-Jay.
Subalpine Paramo (above timberline): Spectacular views await you while birding on Cerro de la Muerte, the highest point in Costa Rica. This rugged habitat is known as alpine tundra and distinctive plant communities have evolved here in response to abundant sunlight and the cool wet climate. This is the only chance on the tour to find the Volcano Junco. The Talamanca Mountains are located in San Jose Province.
Tropical Wet Forests and Tropical Rain Forest: We will bird or stay at a lodge that birders from around the world visit seeking to add the Black-faced Antthrush to their life list. White-throated Crake, Northern and Wattled Jacana, Spectacled Owl, Long-tailed Hermit, Fiery-billed Aracari, and seven species of seedeaters including the Ruddy-breasted Seedeater are common in this habitat. We often see Great Green Macaw while driving from our lodging on our way to the world famous La Selva OTS bio station where we have seen as many as 106 bird species during six hours of birding on past tours! This habitat is located in both the Golfito area near the Piedras Blancas National Park in the southern Pacific region and also in the Caribean lowlands in the Sarapiqui region in northwest Costa Rica.
Iguana
Riparian Habitat and Mangrove Forest: we include a boat trip on the Tarcoles River to explore this wetland environment. Mangrove Warbler, Mangrove Vireo, Boat-billed Heron, and Roseate Spoonbills are often the highlights of this outing.
Turquoise-browed Motmot
The price range will be from *$2,850 to *$2,930 depending on which lodges we are able to get. The price includes: 13 nights of lodging, three meals a day (beginning with the welcome dinner the first night through breakfast on the day of departure), the services of your tour guide, a Toyota Coaster air-conditioned bus with a full time driver, National Park, Reserves, and Botanical Gardens fees, (in other words any entry fees), double-occupancy rooms (2 people and 2 beds per room) *This amount is based on a minimum of 10 (ten) participants for the tour. If the tour does not have 10 participants either the final cost could be increased to cover the higher per person cost of a smaller group or the tour could be cancelled.
I will be offering photography instruction on this tour at no additional cost.
Not Included In the price of your tour: Airfare to and from the U.S. to San Jose, Costa Rica. Alcoholic beverages and soft drinks. Airport Tax of $26 USD paid at the airport on the day of departure (required by Costa Rica). Health Insurance, Medical Evacuation Coverage or Travel Cancellation /Trip Interruption Coverage.
We are not asking for a commitment from you at this time. What we are asking is that you contact me: Email me by May 24, 2011, with a brief email message simply stating; “I am very interested in going with you on this trip. Please send me the final itinerary and price if you go forward with this tour.”
Remember this won’t be a commitment from you but when we tally the replies we will have a good idea about whether or not to proceed with the logistics of offering a trip in July.
We have recently added a new page to the Majestic Feathers website and if you haven’t seen it please check it out:
Trip Testimonials
You can follow Majestic Feathers on Twitter at: @mjstcfeathers where I occasionally tweet about recent bird sightings and of course announce tours.
0 comments:
Post a Comment