Bird-Watching Tour from San Jose
San Jose, Costa Rica
Trip Type: Nature & Wildlife
Duration: 9 hours
A must-see for bird-watchers: Catch aviary action on this day trip to a private nature sanctuary just outside of San Jose. With 365 different species of birds identified here, you’ll see plenty with and without your binoculars. Follow a naturalist guide into open areas and the rainforest, and fly high over the canopy on an aerial tram, to optimize your aviary sightings. Macaws, hummingbirds and motmots are just a few of the birds you can check off your list. Bonus: Breakfast, lunch and transport from San Jose hotels are included.
More About This Activity All Nature & Wildlife →
A must-see for bird-watchers: Catch aviary action on this day trip to a private nature sanctuary just outside of San Jose. With 365 different species of birds identified here, you’ll see plenty with and without your binoculars. Follow a naturalist guide into open areas and the rainforest, and fly high over the canopy on an aerial tram, to optimize your aviary sightings. Macaws, hummingbirds and motmots are just a few of the birds you can check off your list. Bonus: Breakfast, lunch and transport from San Jose hotels are included.After early morning hotel pickup in San Jose, take a pleasant drive northeast and arrive less than an hour later at Rainforest Adventures Costa Rica Atlantic, an ecotourism reserve spanning 1,174 acres (475 hectares) of waterfalls, rivers and dense tropical forest.
During your bird-watching journey, you'll walk a total of 3 miles (5 km) on paved paths and flat dirt trails located in the Caribbean foothills, as well as primary and secondary tropical rainforests. Set up your tripod on the pavement, and have fun checking off the different birds you see from a list provided by your naturalist guide.
Follow your guide across a hanging bridge over Molinete River, where kingfishers usually are found snapping prey into their long, dagger-like beaks.
Then board an aerial tram and take a peaceful glide through the canopy. During this hour-long ride in an open-air gondola, see a bonanza of birdlife, with your guide explaining what you see along the way. The tram stops every so often to give you optimal opportunity to study birds and snap pictures. See if you can make out the resplendent plumes of a trogon, often missed as it usually perches very still in the mid-canopy.
Disembark deep in the rainforest and continue with your guide on a trail to an overlook point, where you’ll take a break and enjoy a box breakfast. (Breakfast typically includes rice and beans, scrambled eggs, sausages, bread, cereal, fresh fruit, juice, coffee or tea.)
Afterward, your guide takes you down a trail to catch more birds in their habitat, which might include a blue-crowned motmot, with its telltale bare feather shaft, and the keel-billed toucan with its multicolored beak. Perhaps you’ll hear parakeets and macaws before seeing them.
Then take the tram back and end the morning with a delicious and healthy lunch. Enjoy a salad bar, along with beef, chicken, yellow rice, steamed vegetables, sweet plantains, fresh fruit, juice, coffee and tea.
Continue your aviary adventure with your guide on another path toward the reserve’s observation center, a spectacular site with plants that attract hummingbirds. Maybe the lovely blue-gray tanager will flutter into view.
After a marvelous day of bird-watching, enjoy transport back to your San Jose hotel.
Note: Click on the 'View additional info' below to ensure your hotel is included in the pickup and drop-off zone.
During your bird-watching journey, you'll walk a total of 3 miles (5 km) on paved paths and flat dirt trails located in the Caribbean foothills, as well as primary and secondary tropical rainforests. Set up your tripod on the pavement, and have fun checking off the different birds you see from a list provided by your naturalist guide.
Follow your guide across a hanging bridge over Molinete River, where kingfishers usually are found snapping prey into their long, dagger-like beaks.
Then board an aerial tram and take a peaceful glide through the canopy. During this hour-long ride in an open-air gondola, see a bonanza of birdlife, with your guide explaining what you see along the way. The tram stops every so often to give you optimal opportunity to study birds and snap pictures. See if you can make out the resplendent plumes of a trogon, often missed as it usually perches very still in the mid-canopy.
Disembark deep in the rainforest and continue with your guide on a trail to an overlook point, where you’ll take a break and enjoy a box breakfast. (Breakfast typically includes rice and beans, scrambled eggs, sausages, bread, cereal, fresh fruit, juice, coffee or tea.)
Afterward, your guide takes you down a trail to catch more birds in their habitat, which might include a blue-crowned motmot, with its telltale bare feather shaft, and the keel-billed toucan with its multicolored beak. Perhaps you’ll hear parakeets and macaws before seeing them.
Then take the tram back and end the morning with a delicious and healthy lunch. Enjoy a salad bar, along with beef, chicken, yellow rice, steamed vegetables, sweet plantains, fresh fruit, juice, coffee and tea.
Continue your aviary adventure with your guide on another path toward the reserve’s observation center, a spectacular site with plants that attract hummingbirds. Maybe the lovely blue-gray tanager will flutter into view.
After a marvelous day of bird-watching, enjoy transport back to your San Jose hotel.
Note: Click on the 'View additional info' below to ensure your hotel is included in the pickup and drop-off zone.
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