Open Areas Birding - Mangrove Birding Journeys

Open Areas Birding
Enjoy a walk-through hidden corner, find unique moments with a wonderful nature.

The central Pacific coast of Costa Rica is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. Its location, known as a transition forest, is very unique, geographically, the central Pacific lies between the tropical dry forest of the northwest and the tropical rainforest of the southwest. Costa Rica has the advantage from the characteristics of dry and tropical forests with consistent weather patterns, birds and wildlife use the central Pacific forest as a corridor to access food and breeding sites.

This privileged area has excellent points for birding we have identified three areas according to our experience, depending of your targets you can choose your destiny:

Tarcoles Birding

Tárcoles is an incredible starting point for everyone who loves birds or wants to learn about them. Tárcoles is located on the fine line between the dry forest and the rain forest, it borders the Rio Grande de Tarcoles and the Carara National Park, home to many species of iconic birds such as the scarlet macaw and dry forest species such as the ground cuckoo.
The Tarcoles area offers dirt roads and river banks locating some of the most common bird habitats. semi-open. Ever-changing forests due to human intervention or rainforest restoration due to conservation have helped the growth in the number of species such as the Baird’s Trogon Fiery-billed Aracari, Laughing Falcon, Scarlet Macaw, Great Egret, Rufous-tailed, plus many hummingbirds.

Jaco Birding

Known as the surf capital of Costa Rica, Jaco is little known to the bird world. With an astonishing number of more than 400 species of birds, Jacó is the best destination for bird watching in all of Costa Rica, nestled between mountains, rivers and the Pacific Ocean as a natural barrier, Jaco becomes an important destination to see birds.
Macaws find nesting areas in this coastal city, but also its great diversity of micro ecosystems causes the numbers to increase, dozens of families coexist less than 10 minutes by car from the main strip. The diverse habitats of the rainforest are home to a large number of birds, but also the patches of nearby forests, estuaries, grasslands, and agricultural lands. Perfect for bird watchers of all levels, naturalists, and environmentalists.

Bijagual Birding

Ideal for the most passionate bird watchers, this adventure is based on the principles of driving, sighting and walking. Bijagual is located between two life zones, the tropical humid forest and the very humid premontane forest, between places of rural roads, pastures, mature and secondary forests.
Its climatic and landscape condition makes it a very particular destination for bird watching as it can easily exceed 350 species of birds among migratory birds and residents of the lower and upper regions of the central Pacific. The walk along with the patience for bird watching introduces to the visitors is one of the best experiences of his life.

Duration

3 hours

It includes

Snack and water
Professional Bilingual Guide
Professional Binoculars

What to bring

Additional Information

Local transportation service is provided
Children under 7 years old for free, from 8 years old they pay full rate.
We provide professional Nikon equipment for extra cost
Price: $90 pp.

					  We booked the morning mangrove tour with the aim of seeing several target birds and weren't disappointed. It was birds all around from the get go. There were only three... read more people participating in the tour plus Randal (the guide) and Oscar (the captain). The boat is one of the typical ones you see on the Tarcoles River (two seaters one very side of the boat, about 20 rows). Tat meant plenty of  space to walk around and get a good look at  the birds. The boat also has a roof, so at most angles you re protected from the sun.

We started of  with some birding along the road to their property where the boat landing is. There were already a large number of parrots and parakeets there. Once on the boat we saw a large number of herons, terns (including Black Skimmer) and waders. Being on a boat allows you to  get really close to the birds which isexcellent if you are into bird photography.

We started off in the mangrove section where Randals and Oscars keen eyes soon yielded a lot of the specialty birds (Prothonotary Warbler, Mangrove Warbler, Panamanian Flycatcher, ...). They also know the sounds of every bird that lives in the mangrove and will do  their best to call them in (Randal can imitate a lot of them).  He didn't overdo it, so that  any  disturbance was reduced to  the minimum. Very respectful of nature.

After the mangrove section we headed up the main river to check a spot for Double-striped Thick-Knee and we weren't disappointed. Thanks to their excellent knowledge of the tides on the river, we were able to reach the spot at the right time.

All in all I couldn't recommend this  trip more. It delivers on all that is  promised and more. Very much worth your while.				
442filipc
February 8, 2020 

					  We had a lovely daytrip with Mangrove Birding Journeys! We did a guided birdwatching tour in Carara NP and a boattour on the Tarcoles River (also birdwatching and crocodiles). We... read more found the organisation while driving by. We were very happy with this coincidence. They are very nice and friendly! Our guide was very informed and entertaining! We are unexperienced birdwatchers and learned a lot about the costa rican nature and birds! We highly recommend this organisation. They were also very equipped and highly professional in regards to nature photography.				
ValerieBrackenier
February 14, 2022 

					  We chose Mangrove Birding Journeys for our Tarcoles River experience and feel very grateful we did. The incredibly talented birding guide and nature photographer Randall Ortega gave us excellent looks... read more at most of the highlight species in the area. As advanced birders this was appreciated, as he did a great job of identifying the birds, as well as negotiating great looks at each and every one of our lifer species. He is also an expert in Nikon DSLR gear, so was able to tutor us on advanced setting options applicable to the d500 during the trip which was an awesome unexpected bonus. He gave detailed tips on F-stop, ISO and shutter speed settings which made my bird photos much better than they would have otherwise. I was stunned by some of the looks he and his talented boat crew provided during out tour. Full-frame views of everything from a feeding juvenile Yellow-headed Caracara to Whimbrel to crocodiles and even fish were all in abundance. Randall was even able to get me a spare d500 battery when mine ran too low so kudos on going above and beyond to provide a great experience! The boat was spacious, well-maintained and expertly guided in this shallow water riparian habitat so very comforting in that regard. Their headquarters were clean, professional and modern and online payment was easy on an office desktop. Communication was also easy via WhatsApp and email so 10/10 would recommend overall.				
davidgaston7
March 21, 2022

Open Areas BirdingEnjoy a walk-through hidden corner, find unique moments with a wonderful nature.