What are the best birding spots near Jaco?
If you come to visit Jaco and like the birdwatching activity but think this destiny won’t work, let me tell you, you are wrong. Jaco is not only a beach destination, but also offers a market that is not well known yet but is there.
This area beside the beach and surf offers a mountain area, mangroves, rivers, bushes, lowlands forests and pre-montane forest, all these life zones offer a great variety of ecosystems for many species of birds, so guess what? yes, you can go birding while you are in Jaco.
Here is a list of places and some details, that might work for you.
Jaco
Near downtown you can find a few spots, some you can go by yourself, some other places would be better with a local guide. So let’s mention some of these areas.
Quebrada Bonita road and the wetland:
Located on the North side of Jaco, off the Calle Gemelas, early morning and late afternoon are great times to go out and spot some resident and migratory birds as well. While walking the Quebrada Bonita road, by the grassland birding can get interesting, you will find a stream that goes to the small mangrove area of Jaco, species like Tropical Kingbird, Great Kiskadee, Roadside Hawk, Black and Blues Grassquit, Variable Seedeater, Scarlet Rumped Tanager, Ferruginous Pigmy Owl, Red-breast Meadowlark, Eastern Meadowlark, Giant Cowbirds, Common Toddy Flycatcher as well as some egrets and herons. Then to walk to the wetland would be better to hire a local guide since the entrance can give you a hard time, there are species like Cinnamon Becards, Vireos, and Ducks, and sometimes some beautiful owls can be found on the way.
Teleferico (aerial tram) Road:
Located east of Jaco, mostly open flatlands with some secondary forest by the hills, in this case hiring a local guide is definitely a must, someone who knows this road will be of great help. This an easy-to-moderate hike, here you can find some other species of birds like, Black-headed Trogon, Inca Dove, many flycatchers, Harris Hawk, Gray Hawk, and some Swallows. Barred Antshrike, Buff-throated Saltator, Blue Grossbeak, Painted Bunting, Scarlet Macaws and more can be found around this area on a good day.
Tarcoles
This small community is found around 30 minutes drive north of Jaco, located by the Tarcoles River, this place offers a wide variety of water birds, raptors, passerines and more.
If you want to really enjoy the birding you need to book a tour to navigate the river, while on the tour you will have the opportunity to observe Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Snowy Egret, Great Egrets, Tricolored Herons, Little Blue Herons, Great Blue Heron, Common Black Hawk, Osprey, Anhinga, Neotropical Cormorant, Roseate Spoonbill, Magnificent Frigate Bird, Terns, Sandpipers, Mangrove Swallow, Ring Kingfisher, Green Kingfisher, American Pygmy-Kingfisher and more.
Bijagual
A small community located at around 35 minutes up on the mountains near Jaco, besides the views, this area offers great birding, big raptors like the Black Hawk-Eagle, and the white hawk, also small birds like the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Hummingbirds, Becards, Tanagers, Doves, Parrots, Parakeets, Macaws,
Carara National Park.
This National Park is a worldwide known birding destination as it has very diverse birdlife, where stands out the Scarlet Macaw (Lapa Roja – Ara macao ), a species that is in danger of extinction, is the second largest species of Psittacidae of Costa Rica.
It is certainly one of the major sites in the country for birding, see below a list of the most common birds in this park.
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Yellow-throated Vireo, Ruddy Quail-dove, Rufous-and-white Wren, Northern Bentbill, Black-hooded Antshrike, Dusky Antbird, Brown-hooded Parrot, Scarlet Macaw, Plain Xenops, Wedge-billed Woodcreeper, Masked Tityra, Northern Barred Woodcreeper, Dot-winged Antwren, Orange-collared Manakin, Baird’s Trogon, Common and Slate-headed Tody-flycatcher, Purple-crowned Fairy, Long-tailed and Little or Stripe-throated(same species)Hermit, Turkey, Black and King Vulture, Streaked Flycatcher, Cocoa or Buff-throated Woodcreeper, Rufous-breasted Wren, Black-bellied Wren, Black-throated Trogon, Violaceous Trogon, Black-headed Trogon, Lineated Woodpecker, Riverside Wren, Cherrie’s Tanager, Red-legged Honeycreeper, Golden-hooded, Summer and Gray-headed Tanager, White-collared Swift, Boat-billed Flycatcher.
So, if you are thinking to visit the Jaco but was not really sure because you wanted to go birding, now you have some good information that can help you in making your decision.
Let’s go birding.!!!
By Daniel Montiel ( Nature Group Costa Rica)