A bird watcher’s paradise and the bucket list destination for birders worldwide, Costa Rica is known for its exceptional birdlife. With 25% of the country’s territory designated as national parks and reserves, the highest percentage of protected areas in the world, it is recognised worldwide to be at the forefront of conservation.
To receive an invitation to the tropics felt for a long time like a dream. I had fantasized about visiting Costa Rica since I knew it existed. The promise of rainforests full of quetzals, shade-grown fresh coffee, sloths in the canopy and my first hummingbird felt a long way away, but as I sat gazing out the window as the Atlantic sea fell behind us, and we crossed over Costa Rica from above, it suddenly felt very real. With September in the rainy season, our welcome was met with rather a wet start. We arrived late at night in a torrential downpour and after the 5,400 mile journey from London, it was time for bed. There is something to be said for going to sleep in the dark in a new place, knowing when you awake the next morning; there is so much discovery to be had, laying in just pulling back the curtain. I fell asleep listening to the waterfall outside the back of my lodge, and smiled to myself that I had actually fulfilled a bucket list item; something not many of us have the privilege to do.
Within moments of pulling the thread, there it was – my first hummingbird. Darting rapidly with an elegance that likened it more to a dance, a Green-crowned Brilliant was just centimeters away from me. All that separated us was a pane of glass. I held my breath and it seemed like time stood still. The silence was broken with my 5:30am pickup knocking at my door. As I blurted out my excitement, my hands still shaking, I was told I would never forget that moment, but that I was about to take my hummingbird lifer list up by several hundred percent. And so it was, in the first light of the day, my Leica binoculars never out of my hands, we explored Hotel Quelitales on foot.
Spread over 10 acres and bordering 30,000 acres of a forest reserve, our guide, and co-owner of the hotel José Albas took us high into the rainforest, and then lower to experience birdlife at alternating locations and altitudes, including the Doña Ana waterfall and the hides. From Scaled Antpitta, Black-bellied Hummingbirds, Green-fronted Lancebills and Sunbittern to the Menelaus Blue morphos and Glasswing butterflies my brain was firing on all cylinders. It was like a fiesta in my mind full of colour and life, and by the end of the day, my cheeks hurt from smiling and I had to consult our e-bird lists just to be sure of quite how many species we counted. When we left Hotel Quelitales, a very difficult place to leave, and headed towards the Valle de El General we stopped to search for two endemic birds; Cabanis ́s Ground-sparrow and Hoffmann’s Woodpecker. Successful in both sightings, I made sure to sit with the significance of finding endemic birdlife. Endemic wildlife can provide us with a barometer of biodiversity health, it helps to preserve evolutionary heritage and also serves to remind us of cultural relationships. To think I might never have the chance to see these specific birds again heightened the significance of seeing them and made the experience even more precious.
Moving further south we stopped at the Paramo in search of the regional endemic volcano junco and timberline wren. Having experienced the almost 100% humidity of the tropics, and the lush flora and fauna that collapsed into one another creating this vast textured blanket of green, it was remarkable to step out of the bus and be hit with a sharp, biting cold. High into the cloud forest at above 3000m (from sea level) the vegetation had changed dramatically. Sub-tropical cushion plants, grasses and dwarf shrubs were low to the ground; an evolutionary adaptation to withstand the harsh conditions of the Paramo. Talamanca Reserve, my final destination, protects 400 acres of premontane forest and cloud forest sharing boundaries with La Amistad World Biosphere Reserve. With beautiful cabins tucked into the landscape, you are nestled under sounds of Gartered trogans, Lesson’s motmots, Purple-crowned Fairies and Squirrel Cuckoos. Some of the birdlife highlights included the Emerald Toucanet, Firey-billed Aracari, White-throated Mountain-gem and Scarlet-thighed Dacnis. My pals really weren’t kidding when they said I’d see some hummingbirds.
Falling asleep in Costa Rica for the last time felt like realising a dream. Exhausted from the dawn wake ups, the jet lag, the slightly precarious stomach I’d been medicating, and from lugging my stupidly heavy kit through the forest with a side of stubbornness, I felt a strange sense of calm. To experience something so completely awe-inspiring, to be shown the world from a different faraway corner, and to see colours, shapes, people and wildlife you could only imagine existed, changes you. As I sat on the plane back to London, I felt completely content. Costa Rica was everything I hoped it would be, but more than that, it served as a reminder that for me, birds are my place of peace.