This bird watching expedition for bird lovers begins early in the morning when the birds are most active. Home to half the bird species in Costa Rica, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is an ideal place to search for both endemic and endangered bird life. Straddling the continental divide with an altitude around 1400 meters, Monteverde hosts a rich biodiversity and is considered to be one of the most unique protected environments in Central America.
You will be picked up between 5:30 and 6:00am based on the location of your lodging. At 6am a trained naturalist guide with intimate knowledge of the local area will lead you on a beautiful woodland hike stopping at strategic sites all along the way where various species are known to cohabitate. Species such as: the 3 Wattled Bell Bird, the Resplendent Quetzal, Great Curassow, Emerald Toucanettes and the Black Guan make this forest their home. Dozens of other avian genuses inhabit this terrain as well.
Having the ability to recognize the characteristic vocalizations of many types of birds specific to this region, your guide will assist you in finding the perfect location to take photos or set up your scope. You can also take amazing photos through your guide’s professional spotting scope if you are equipped with only a camera.
With any luck you may cross paths with other cloud forest inhabitants such as coatis, monkeys, basilisk lizards or colorful frogs. You’ll be surrounded by an abundance of ferns, mosses and the highest concentration of orchid species in the world which your guide will be happy to point out to you. This leisurely hike through a variety of rain forest regions lasts for approximately 3 hours. A delicious hot typical breakfast is included. Depending on the latest bird sighting information, you might be eating breakfast between birding locations of after the tour is over. Your guide will discuss these options with you at the time of pick up. Be sure to bring binoculars and a camera.
The Birdwatching Tour Quality Trails is available from Monteverde
5 and up
Latitude: N 10° 20' 33.26"
Longitude: W 84° 47' 55.34"
02/03/2020
Very good !
01/21/2020
Wonderful
12/22/2019
This is a very relaxing and interesting tour. Guide is very detailed .
12/15/2019
My husband and I did this tour in memory of my parrot who passed away this year. I made a shirt with my parrot's picture on it and wore it the day of the tour. This was another favorite activity that we did in Costa Rica -it was very liberating and a beautiful experience. Our tour guide was so nice and full of wisdom/knowledge -it amazing how much he knows about birds. We saw a lot of different birds (parrots, woodpecker, humming birds, and more) and we also saw some monkeys which was really cool.
11/27/2019
Our guide (Grievin) was fantastic. We saw about 30 species of birds.
10/05/2019
Wonderful tour. A highlight of the trip. The guide was amazingly knowledgeable and so skilled at finding and identifying a wide range of birds.
05/20/2019
Again the guide was excellent. He didn't point out the birds but other wildlife as well. We were hoping to see a Toucan but to no avail unfortunately.
04/03/2019
Great tour!
03/12/2019
Guide was a young man that knew his birds but seemed to be new at the guiding thing. He did his best. Transportation was late picking us up by 45 minutes. Food provided was in a zip lock bag with 2 pieces of white bread, one thin slice of lunch meat and a juice box. Not good.
03/06/2019
We didn't see as many birds as we were hoping, but it was also very windy. The guide persevered in the harder conditions and we were able to see some hard to find birds.
03/04/2019
The guide for this tour was not as knowledgeable as most of the guides I met in Costa Rica. He did know specific birds and was interested in finding them for us, but his knowledge of a wide array of birds was limited.
02/06/2019
Even for non-birders, this is well worth doing.
08/13/2018
It was essentially a repeat of the previous one. more exclusive yes, so more interaction with the guide, which was good. But, we hardly saw any birds on this tour also. No prior information on length of tour.
12/12/2017
the guide was excellent but there were hardly any birds to be seen, not his fault I know. We did however see plenty at a bird feeder he took us to.
03/28/2017
Our guide did a great job showing us a lot of
birds. Very knowledgeable and worked hard to
spot birds.
03/01/2017
Guide was outstanding
02/02/2017
Our guide was a wonderful young man if not as amazing at spotting birds as some of our other guides. But we had had some back and forth with PTW about the type of birding trip we wanted and we were told this was a four hour tour. It ended up being 2 to 2.5 hours birding and then a (very nice) breakfast. But since we were in Monteverde I assumed the tour would be in the cloud forest. It was in secondary forest below the cloud forest, where, for example, we wouldn't have any chance to see a Quetzal. So it seemed like a long trip to Monteverde to not go birding in the cloud forest.
11/15/2016
Our guide was very good, there just weren't a lot of birds where he took us. We got good looks at an owl and a falcon, and our guide got great photos for us with our cell phones and his scope. It was a fun morning.
02/21/2016
I would have liked to see more birds in the wild.
02/17/2016
Juan Jose and Dulce were wonderful. The Ficus Trails were perhaps the highlight of our trip.
02/05/2016
Guide was well informed and fine for experienced bird watchers He didn't have much patience with novices like us. We would have appreciated knowing that breakfast would be included.
01/30/2016
A little hard for some in our group, but I liked it a lot.
01/10/2016
To boring for me but we saw some beautiful birds
12/28/2015
please send more people on tour with this guide. She was very good.
06/17/2015
Jorge Marin picked us up on time and was extremely friendly and accommodating. If you are a serious bird watcher, this is the guide you want. He has been studying bird activity in the area since he was a boy. He knows the spots to hit to find common and rare birds. He is able to imitate their calls to get responses and locate birds. He is extremely friendly and knowledgable, and was very accommodating of my birding interests. We are still in touch, exchanging birding information. I think I added at least 20 birds to my life list that morning. We didn't get a chance to try any of the other tours he does(night tours, wildlife tours, etc.) this time around, but I would hike any trail with him and learn and see things new! On another note, if you are not a serious bird watcher, you might still want to try this tour. Jorge will make it fun for you too. He really understands his group and does a great job!
05/20/2015
Really knowledgeable and talented guide. His private property so had it to ourselves, saw lots of birds. But we missed seeing the Monteverde National Park, and the quetzal. Once again, he added another two hours of very adventurous hiking, which we loved.
12/07/2014
The experience and site were lovely. Would have liked to see more birds. We are hard core birders and expect guides to rise to that.