Trogon Photo Tours

Costa Rica

January 17-29, 2023

Photo Tour: This 13 day photo tour features the best lodges and locations for bird photography in Costa Rica.  You will photograph toucans, tanagers, curassows, parrots and King Vultures in the Northwest, beautiful poison dart frogs and roosting owls in the Sarapiqui Valley.  We do multi-flash hummingbird photography at 2 different lodges at both mid level and higher altitude elevations to get a lot of different species.  We spend a day and a half photographing the majestic Resplendent Quetzal and we will go on a river cruise where we photograph raptors, herons and crocodiles up close.  And those are just the highlights of the tour. 

Tour Leader: Charles Gangas.  Chuck spends his winters photographing birds in Costa Rica.  He's an enthusiastic tour leader who will help you get the most out of your tour.  

Number of Participants: Maximum of 6 photographers and 9 total participants.

Cost: $5,350 per photographer with a $600 single supplement.  4,700 for a non photographer spouse.  Deposit to reserve your spot $1,400.   This includes all in country transportation, lodging, meals, guiding, instruction, property fees and drinking water.  It does not include airfare to get to Costa Rica, drinks other than water, tips and items of a personal nature such as phone calls or laundry. 



Itinerary:

January 17th - Arrival to Costa Rica, transfer to Villa San Ignacio, which is a nice hotel near the airport with lovely gardens that attract some nice birds.  Overnight: Villa San Ignacio   

January 18th - A bit of morning bird photography at Villa San Ignacio then transfer to Bosque de Paz Lodge, mid elevation, Caribbean side.  Afternoon multi-flash photography of hummingbirds including the amazing Violet Sabrewing and about 4 other species.  The fruit feeders at this lodge attract tanagers, barbets and the amazing Black Guan.  Overnight: Bosque de Paz

January 19th - Full day of multi-flash photography at Bosque de Paz and nearby feeding station.  Other interesting species here include Black Guan, Paca and Prong-billed Barbet.  Among the hummingbirds we photograph are the endemic Black-bellied Hummingbirdand the gorgeous Purple-throated Mountain Gem.  Overnight: Bosque de Paz Lodge

January 20th - Morning at Bosque de Paz followed by transfer to Laguna Lagarta.  Photography of toucans, parrots etc in the later afternoon.  Overnight: Laguna Lagarto Lodge  

January 21st and 22nd  - Two full days at Laguna Lagarto.   This is the best location in Costa Rica for photographing birds coming in to fruit feeders.  Some of the spectacular species include Keel-billed and Yellow-throated Toucans, Aracaris, Brown-hooded Parrots, Montezuma Oropendolas, Honeycreepers and Great Curassows.  There is a hide for photographing King Vultures and we will do snake photography as well as multi-flash bat photography at this location.  Overnight: Laguna Lagarto.  

January 23rd - Morning photography at Laguna followed by transfer to the Sarapiqui River Valley lowlands.  In the afternoon we will visit a location where we will photograph 6 to 8 species of rainforest and poison dart frogs.  Overnight: Bambu Lodge

January 24th - We will leave the lodge early and spend the morning at a location in the lowlands where we will visit roosting sites of owls, potoos and Honduran White Bats.  At this spot there are also fruit feeders which attract some different birds such as Chestnut-headed Oropendelas and Emerald Tanagers.  In the evening we will return to Bambu Lodge.  Overnight: Bambu Lodge

January 25th - A bit of bird photography at Bambu Lodge then we check out for our longest transfer of the trip.  Without stops it's about five hours but we will break for lunch and a bit of bird photography before arriving in the southern highlands in the late afternoon.    Overnight: Beautiful Savegre Lodge

January 26th - Today we have a full day photographing the incredible Resplendant Quetzal.  The locals here really have the quetzal photography nailed, they have setup perches which the quetzals use at several different locations in the area.  This is a great time of year to photograph the quetzals at their nesting locations.  Overnight: Savegre Lodge

January 27th - This morning we will do multi-flash and perched photography of the beautiful Fiery-throated Hummingbird as well as other highland species. After lunch we will check out and head to Cerro Lodge, a great place to photograph Scarlet Macaw.  Overnight: Cerro Lodge

January 28th - We have 2 activities today, the first is a boat trip on the Tarcoles River, this trip will get you close to Bare-throated Tiger Herons, Boat-billed Herons, Caracaras, Black Hawks and Crocodiles.  Our other activity features seeking out some special birds wtih a local guide including some of the smaller owls, Turqouise-browed Motmot and Lesser Ground Cuckoo, among others.  Overnight: Cerro Lodge

January 29th - Transfer to the airport for your return flight home.  Cerro Lodge is only an hour from the international airport.