Since we were more interested in photographing what we saw rather than accumulating a lot of ticks we did not use a guide; our thinking being if it was close enough to photograph then we should be able to see it. Small things flitting about the canopy were of little interest. The other factor was the cost. What we couldn't do was identify birds by call and try to whistle or tape lure them closer which is what quite a few guides seem to do. We will never know whether the cost would have been justified.
For our first trip we went along the Meandrica trail (near the river) and within 10 yards of entering the forest we found a pair of white whiskered puff birds only a few yards off the track.
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| female |
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| Male |
So after 2 minutes I thought Carara was wonderful but after that thing got very slow. We did hear some manakins snapping but as we tried to locate them the calling faded then stopped completely. I also spotted a royal flycatcher - I'd seen the bird moving through the forest about 20 yards away and had no idea what it was (and no chance of a photograph) when it raised it's crest - no mistaking that.
The orange billed sparrow was easy to id as was the black hooded antshrike (female) because we'd seen both of these earlier in the holiday. A chestnut backed antbird was a welcome addition to out list however.
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| female black-hooded antshrike |
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| Chestnut-backed antbird (male) |
Later on we found another pair of puffbirds, a white tipped dove and a male black hooded antshrike but that was it for the camera.
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| Male black-hooded antshrike |
The wet area often discussed in write ups of this trail was dry and completely covered with 5-6ft high reeds. We saw no one else on this trail though a group of capuchins took exception to our presence and were very aggressive.
For our second trip we went along the main trail at park entrance and things got off to a lively start with a steely vented hummingbird by the car park and as soon as we started along the trail it was clear there were a lot more birds here. Many were high up and/or invisible but it was nice to see movement and hear bird song - something lacking for much of the Meandrica trail. To start we saw birds we'd already logged - orange billed sparrow and black hooded antshike (at least 2).
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| Steely-vented hummingbird |
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| Black-hooded antshrike |
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| Orange-billed sparrow |
But a stop overlooking a stream gave us Northern waterthrush, grey-chested dove and yellow-olive flycatcher.
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| yellow-olive flycatcher |
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| Grey chested dove |
Moving on we found streak headed woodcreeper, several plain xenops and blue-back grosbeak.
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| Blue-black grosbeak |
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| Plain xenops |
Some rustling in the leaf litter had us peering into the gloom for several minutes before we spotted a thrush size bird almost completely immersed in the leaf litter. Eventually it came into view then very kindly hopped up onto a twig to consume it's catch:
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| Buff-throated foliage-gleaner |
On the return leg we picked up a rufous winged woodpecker then had a pair of chestnut-backed antbirds hopping around in front of us coming within 10 yards.
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| Rufous winged woodpecker |
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| Chestnut-backed antbird. (Top - male, bottom - female) |
As the forest thinned we picked up streaked flycatcher and red-legged honeycreeper.
The final bird of the session was a gartered trogon again in the car park.
Not a huge list but quite a few flitters went unidentified and a number of chestnut-sided warblers were seen but not photographed.
All I can say is forest birding is difficult and when a bird is found the light conditions are truly appalling. To my mind a flash is essential. To illustrate this point here's a picture of the puffbird we saw on the Meandrica trail but taken using natural light - all I had was 1/60th sec at ISO 8000!!!!!.
Just about all you can say about this picture is you can see it's a puffbird and bin it.
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