Santa Rosa and Guanacaste National Parks
The old dry forest of the far north. Some of the trees in Santa Rosa are at least 500 years old, and the park holds 250 species of birds across ten different habitats, in a forest that drops its leaves in the dry season.
Guanacaste National Park borders it: the same dry forest, running up into a wet-dry transition forest round the volcano inside the park.
We do it as a day. There is no lodge of ours up here, so you go out from Liberia with a guide, about an hour each way, and are back for the evening.
At a glance
- Habitat
- tropical dry forest, old trees, wet-dry transition forest in Guanacaste National Park
- Map pin
- 10.84782, -85.75296
- On eBird
- PN Santa Rosa
The birds to look for
The Great Curassow, which our birding notes name for Santa Rosa and Corcovado and nowhere else.
And the dry-forest birds of the zone, which are easy to see when the trees are bare: Elegant Trogon and Black-headed Trogon, Long-tailed Manakin, White-throated Magpie-Jay, the Turquoise-browed Motmot and, in the open at dusk, the Double-striped Thick-Knee.
| English | Scientific | Spanish | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Curassow | Crax rubra | Pavón Grande | |
| Elegant Trogon | Trogon elegans | Trogón Elegante | |
| Black-headed Trogon | Trogon melanocephalus | Trogón Cabecinegro | |
| Long-tailed Manakin | Chiroxiphia linearis | Saltarín Toledo | |
| White-throated Magpie-Jay | Cyanocorax formosa | Urraca Copetona | |
| Turquoise-browed Motmot | Eumomota superciliosa | Momoto Cejiceleste | |
| Double-striped Thick-Knee | Hesperoburhinus bistriatus | Alcaraván Americano |
Getting there
Fly into Liberia. Santa Rosa is about an hour from Liberia by road, so the park is a day out with a guide rather than a stop with a night.
When to go
The dry season, December to April, when the forest is barest and the birding easiest. The resident birds are here in every month.
Where we stay nearby
No lodge of ours is within 20 km of the park, so we plan it as a guided day out from a lodge near Liberia.
Trips that bird here
No fixed trip stops here yet; we add it to a custom trip.
Other hotspots in this region
Which of these mornings is yours?
A few minutes on the form, and one of our Costa Rica specialists comes back to you personally with a first itinerary: the dry side in the right order with whatever else is on your list, and how many nights each stop really needs. That first version is just a place to start.
Or call us: 1 (800) 996-1139 from the US and Canada, +506 4052-2140 in Costa Rica.