Costa Rica- Arenal Mistico Hanging Bridges and Arenal Volcano National Park (Day 7)

On this day we walked over to Mistico Hanging Bridges Park to meet up with our guide for the morning, a perfectly nice guy whose name I forgot.  We weren't sure if we would be in a big group or what but it turned out to be the four of us plus a very nice German tourist.

White-necked Jacobin

It was very dark on this morning so photos are extra fuzzy.



 Rufous Motmot


Jacob, Steve, and the German checking out some long-nosed bats




 Tawny-faced Gnatwren


Swallow-tailed Kite

Our guide seemed pretty interested in birds but he seemed worried about the German tourist being bored with our bird-fiending.  He even offered to let him join a different group if he wanted, but the German stuck with us for some reason.

A flock of birds materialized at the end of one of the hanging bridges.  A lot was going on but these are the two birds I best remember:

White-throated Shrike-Tanager


White-fronted Nunbird


Ornate Hawk-Eagle

Our guide was probably most excited to show us this pit viper:


I swear he called it a green palm pit viper but we are pretty sure it's an eyelash pit viper (Bothriechis schlegelii) as you can even see the little scales above the eye that look like eyelashes.

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Our guided walk came to an end without seeing an owl we had hoped our guide could find.  We were shuffled over to the cafe where coffee and a granola bar was included with our tour.  Complete checklist from the morning here.


Back by our villa this Crowned Woodnymph was hiding out in the porter weed, looking awesome:


 That afternoon we headed to the Peninsula Sector of Arenal Volcano National Park.


Jacob had spotted a Keel-billed Motmot on the entrance road, before we even made it to this sign.


Some kind of velvet ant

 The trail at the national park was warm and popular with tourists but we still saw a few cool things, like a Broad-billed Motmot annihilating an insect.


When it finished with that one it immediately caught another.


Green Honeycreeper


 Some kind of nest

There were several Montezuma Oropendolas right over the trail and a couple were even displaying.

Not displaying

 Displaying

 



 Howler monkey

 Another White-fronted Nunbird!

 Possibly a Split-banded Owl-Butterfly (Opsiphanes cassina)


Back on the entrance road I took a break while the others walked down looking for more birds.  They lucked into a tour group viewing a Great Potoo.


Crested Guan

I was excited to get eyes on a Great Antshrike that was moving around in a shrub.  But then it stopped moving.  And went to sleep.  It had only flown in to roost for the night.


It was pretty dark by then so we called it quits and headed back to our Airbnb.  Complete checklist from this area here.  Good times!

Comments

  1. Awesome birds again!
    Viper is super cool too!

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    1. Yeah, I have to wonder how many vipers we walked by without noticing.

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  2. I'm really enjoying your pictures and commentary! I was on a two week guided birding trip to Ecuador in early February and there's so much similarity and sometimes overlap with the birds and scenery that you're posting that it's a bit like reliving my trip. Thanks for doing these. Cheers,
    --Mark

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Mark! Glad you're enjoying my blog. Hope to get to Ecuador someday myself!

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  3. Just beautiful birds and the viper is really amazing. I can't imagine seeing so many new species I would be going batty...trying to keep it all straight.

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