Heliconias Lodge

Trips: 2

The Heliconias Lodge is in northern Costa Rica closer to Liberia than San Jose. While the lodge itself is right on the border of Guanacaste, it skirts the Tenorio Volcano and has largely Caribbean avifauna . This is a reasonable lodge with a couple of very good trails around the property.  A couple of other lodges close by, including the newer Celeste Mountain Lodge, make this an interesting and under-birded area. 

Many birders coming here are looking for the Tody Motmot (a much better chance here than elsewhere). In the past, an Ornate Hawk-Eagle has nested near the property, and a Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo was seen an photographed for over a year. Unfortunately, I missed both the motmot and the ground-cuckoo on my trip, but I enjoyed the habitat.

The road through the town of Bijagua crosses two ecological zones in a short time. At Heliconias Lodge you pick up the Caribbean foothill species, but a quick drive to the west puts you in the drier Guanacaste Province.

Birding at Heliconias Lodge can be fairly difficult, but that's to be expected in deep forest habitat. You may find Great Curassow, Long-tailed Manakin, White-ruffed Manakin, Spotted Antbird, and Carmiol's Tanager with minimal luck.

The Heliconias Lodge is also a good place to look for Nightingale Wren and Northern Schiffornis. Neither bird is easy to see, but both species sing at this location in the dry season.

The following link from the Costa Rica Guide website is a good map of the general area, particularly around the south side of the highway where it skirts the Tenorio Volcano. Heliconias Lodge, Celeste Lodge and area map.

Ebird observations (bar chart) at Heliconias Lodge - https://ebird.org/barchart?r=L1469245&yr=all&m=