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:  Javier Zurita and Charles Gangas.  Javier is excellent with multi-flash hummingbird photography.  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 Cerro Lodge which is on the coast about an hour away.  This is the best lodge to photograph Scarlet Macaw.  Overnight: Cerro Lodge   

January 18th - 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 with a local guide including some of the smaller owls, Turquoise-browed Motmot and Lesser Ground Cuckoo, among others. Then we transfer to our next lodge in the mountains of the Southwest.  Overnight: Savegre Lodge

January 19th and 20th - We will have two full days in this region photographing the incredible Resplendent Quetzal and doing multi-flash hummingbird photography.  The locals here really have the quetzal photography nailed, they have setup perches which the quetzals use at several different locations in the area.  The garden of Savegre often has exciting birds such as Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher.  Overnight: Savegre Lodge

January 21st - This morning we will do multi-flash and perched photography of the beautiful Fiery-throated Hummingbird as well as other highland species such as Volcano Hummingbird, then we will have lunch, check out and head to the Sarapiqui Valley.  We will arrive late in the afternoon and do a bit of bird photography around our lodge, Bambu Hotel. 

January 22nd - 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 23rd - We will visit a local feeding station where we can do some multi-flash photography of White-necked Jacobins and lots of species such as Black-cowled Oriole and Golden-naped Tanagers visit the fruit feeders. 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 - Morning bird photography at Bambu Lodge followed by transfer to Laguna Lagarto.  Photography of toucans, parrots etc in the afternoon.  Overnight: Laguna Lagarto Lodge 

January 25th and 26th  - 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 27th - Morning photography at Laguna then we check out and head to a site in the foothills which attracts different hummingbird species such as Violet Sabrewing, the endemic Black-bellied Hummingbird and the gorgeous Purple-throated Mountain Gem.  We will have a multi-flash hummingbird photo session here and then continue on to our next lodge. Overnight: Villa Blance Lodge.  

January 28th - The fruit feeders at Villa Blanca Lodge attract a nice variety of tangers including Bay-headed, Speckled and Emerald as well as Rufous Motmot.  Their hummingbird feeders attract a nice variety of mid elevation species.  Overnight: Villa Blanca Lodge 

January 29th - Transfer to the airport for your return flight home.  Villa Blanca is less than two hours from the international airport.