Guests staying at the Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel have a golden opportunity to look for rare Costa Rican birds such as the Resplendent Quetzal on this 2-hour guided hike. Surrounded by a 2000-acre private nature reserve, the hotel offers professional birding guides who are Greentique certified with local daily knowledge of the reserve’s bird populations.
The tour begins early in the morning at the hotel’s reception area where you will meet your experienced, bilingual guide. On this mild to moderate hike you will walk across sloping pastures and into the cloud forest searching for sightings of some of the 258 species of birds that have been recorded here. Many rare and endangered species find sanctuary in the high elevation of this protected area.
Some of the more uncommon birds you may encounter include the Three-Wattled Bellbird, Orange Bellied Trogon, and the elusive Resplendent Quetzal. Your knowledgeable guide will listen for recognizable bird calls to help you spot and identify the available sightings of the day.
A variety of buzzing hummingbirds, colorful parrots and parakeets, toucans, warblers, orioles, antbirds, owls, hawks, falcons, and swifts also live in this cloud forest reserve. Be sure to bring a telephoto lens for your camera if you have one. But if you don’t, your guide will be carrying a high-powered spotting scope and will help you get amazing close-up photographs by placing your camera up to the lens of the scope.
The research station at the center of the Villa Blanca Cloud Forest and Nature Reserve gathers climate information for the National Institute of Meteorology in concert with tracking the delicate life cycles of butterflies, moths and beetles. Student participants from universities and local communities volunteer their time and maintain the educational displays inside the center.
This tour is available only to guests staying at the Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel and includes a certified Greentique birding specialist guide. Please wear fully enclosed hiking shoes, and bring rain gear, insect repellent, bottled water, binoculars, and your camera. Since this is for hotel guests only there is NO TRANSPORTATION needed. Perfect for families with children ages 6 and up.
Even if you have never considered birdwatching before, you may be surprised at the excitement sighting these exquisite birds can bring.
The Cloud Forest Bird Watching is available from Villa Blanca
6 and up
Latitude: N 10° 12' 8.6"
Longitude: W 84° 29' 3.53"
03/28/2019
Our guide (Jairo) was very knowledgeable and worked very hard to make our experience a good one. He knows how to identify birds by their calls and then to locate them. He also knows how to make calls to call the birds. We didn't know the morning would be so foggy, which made it difficult to see the birds (and also to photograph them). I had to alter my expectations about that. Still, it was a good experience.