What a birding day in Costa Rica looks like

Before first light

The alarm goes early. Most of our birding mornings begin before first light, and the lodges pack an early breakfast or have coffee waiting. At many of them the fruit feeders go out before sunrise, so if you are up first, sit by them with your coffee and the birds come to you.

On a quetzal morning at San Gerardo de Dota the guide meets you at the lodge gate in the dark and walks you to the wild avocado trees the birds are feeding on this season. On a boat morning you leave earlier still: on our northern trip the van leaves at 6:45 for the boat on the Tempisque.

The guide

For the mornings that matter, we book a local birding guide, the person who birds that place every week. A guide knows the calls, this week's fruiting trees and the territory of the hawk-eagle, and carries the scope. On your own you will see birds; with a guide you will see the ones you came for.

A guided morning is usually a slow walk, not a hike. At San Gerardo de Dota it is slow walking at altitude; at Carara the park trail is flat; on the Tárcoles mangrove, at Tortuguero and at Caño Negro the guide is in the boat with you.

Breakfast

On the days you go out at dawn, breakfast is late, and it is rarely just breakfast. At Rancho Naturalista the feeders are on the balcony, and your list starts there before the guide has finished his coffee. At San Gerardo de Dota the first look at a quetzal is sometimes from the breakfast table.

If you would rather not set an alarm, ask for easy mornings: breakfast first, then the guide.

Late morning and the middle of the day

By ten the birds go quiet, and in the lowlands the heat comes up. That is when we stop. On the Pacific coast the rule is start at first light and stop by ten. The middle of the day is for lunch, a rest, a swim, or the next transfer: our private driver moves you between zones on your schedule and stops wherever you ask.

In the green season, May to November on the Pacific side, the mornings are usually sunny and the rain comes in the afternoon, which suits a birding day, since the mornings are the work.

The afternoon

The afternoon is often yours. When it is not, it has its own birds:

• The hummingbird pools at Rancho Naturalista, where the Snowcap comes to bathe in the late afternoon.
• The mangrove boat on the Tárcoles, in the afternoon light after a morning in Carara.
• The lodge trails at Arenal, walked with a guide on the afternoon you arrive.

If you are travelling with someone who does not bird, this is the shared half of the day: the hot springs at Arenal, the beach at Manuel Antonio, a pool above the Pacific.

Dusk

At Carara the Scarlet Macaws cross the river in pairs at dawn and again at dusk, and at the lodge above the Tárcoles they fly over in the evening. In the foothills the Snowcap pools are a dusk session.

After dark

Some stops have a night walk. On our First Birding Trip there is a guided night walk at Monteverde after dinner, and at Tortuguero the lodge runs night walks from the property. Where a lodge has one, we can add it; on most nights, dinner and an early bed are the right call, because the guide is at the door before light again tomorrow.

How the days add up

Three nights at a stop gives you two full dawns there, which is what the quetzal and most hard birds need. A week holds two zones, nine or ten days holds three. If a bird has not shown, we add a night rather than another place.