Birding in the Costa Rican cloud forest was quite an experience. Below are
observations from both the Santa Elena Reserve and the Monterverde
Reserve. Santa Elena was actually my favorite of the 2 and I would highly
recommend it.We saw numerous non-avian species in 2 intense days of
birding including howler monkeys, lizards, agoutis,coatimondies and 2-toed
sloths but certainly the emphasis was on the birds.

Birds: George has this in a complete database so the # to the left
indicate the plate # from Stiles and Skutch and the letter designation on
the right is a locator (T=Tortuguero, E=Santa Elena, M=Monterverde,
G=Guacinal (south of Monteverde), C=Cararra). R=rare)
R Brown-billed Scythebill
R Green-fronted Lancebill
R Ruby-throated Hummingbird
R Yellow-bellied Sapsucker


21.07A Squirrel Cuckoo TMG2CR
21.09A Groove-billed Ani MG2C
22.20A Blue-+-white Swallow M
23.03A Green Hermit EM
23.07A Green Violet-ear M
23.09A Violet Sabrewing M
23.15A Green-crowned Brilliant M
24.07A Purple-throated Mountain-gem M
24.10A Rufous-tailed Hummingbird MG2C
24.15A Steely-vented Hummingbird MC
24.19A White-tailed Emerald M
24.20A Coppery-headed Emerald M
25.09A Ruby-throated Hummingbird M
26.04A Orange-bellied Trogon M
27.17A Emerald Toucanet M
28.11A Golden-olive Woodpecker M
28.16A Hoffmann's Woodpecker MCS
28.20A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker M
29.04A Ruddy Treerunner M
29.05A Spotted Barbtail M
29.08A Streak-headed Woodcreeper MG2C
29.14A Brown-billed Scythebill E
30.08A Lineated Foliage-gleaner M
30.12A Red-faced Spinetail M
31.10A Immaculate Antbird E
35.12A Boat-billed Flycatcher MC
35.14A Social Flycatcher M
35.21A Dusky-capped Flycatcher MC
36.07A Western Wood-Pewee M
38.14A Gray-breasted Wood-Wren M
38.17A Plain Wren M
38.18A House (Southern) Wren M
38.23A Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush EM
39.06A Mountain Robin M
39.17A Azure-hooded Jay M
39.19A Brown Jay G1MR
40.05A Yellow-green Vireo M
40.06A Yellow-throated Vireo MG2C
40.20A Three-striped Warbler EM
40.22A Tennessee Warbler MC
41.13A Black-+-white Warbler MC
42.04A Wilson's Warbler EM
42.06A Collared Redstart EM
42.07A Slate-throated Redstart EM
43.09A Black-throated Green Warbler M
43.12A Ovenbird M
44.07A Northern (Baltimore) Oriole MG2C
45.13A Common Bush-Tanager EM
46.12A Spangled-cheeked Tanager M
47.05A Summer Tanager MG2
48.02A Buff-throated Saltator MC
48.19A White-eared Ground-Sparrow M
50.13A Rufous-collared Sparrow E

We visited Santa Elena on our own and were introduced abruptly to the
concept of "mixed flocks". there are some very good write ups of this In
publications from La Selva and also in Jansen's "Natural History of Costa
Rica". Having a mixed flock of 20 birds that you have never seen before
fly by at mach 10 in a dark cloud forest is a humbling experience.
However, we began to figure out the common ones, and those that routinely
came first, and at what part of the canopy. then we divided the effort
amongst the 3 of us and made some progress!
All of this became much easier the 2nd day when we started birding
with Alex Villegas.He is truely an amazing birder. He would hear the mixed
flocks coming, alert us as to who the leaders were and where in the canopy
to look for them. Despite the pouring rain we had a great morning of
birding.
There are several different habitats near both cloud forest
reserves that al provide excellent birding. This is really an outstanding
place, and second only to the Carrara Reserve for great birding. That list
is quite long and I'll post it after New Years (off to do a lynx survey
and to look for snow hardy birds in the Okanogan).
Alex is a great contact for birders traveling to Costa Rica. He
has a number of recording and surveying projects that take him to
different areas in CR and I suggested that, if he posted his schedule,
Costa Rican bound tweeters might be interested involunteering some time to
help. We also thought that it would be great fun to have Alex come up here
during the spring migration and participate in migratory bird surveys. If
anyone is interested in having Alex speak on costa rican birds at a
meeting, would like to help sponsor this trip, or would like to spend some
time in the field with him, let me know.


References

Taylor, Keith, rev. 1993. A Birder's Guide to Costa Rica; an Introduction to
Birdfinding; a Self-Made Tour for the Independent Birder, Keith Taylor
Birdfinding Guides. 238 pp., spiral.

Stiles, F. Gary and Alexander F. Skutch, 1992. A Guide to the Birds of Costa
Rica, illus, Dana Gardner, Cornell Univ. Press. 511 pp., paper.

Mary Poss
Dept Microbiology
UW