Amateur Birders

In the grand scheme of things, bird photography has been a very small part of my portfolio of images. I prefer to capture cityscapes, landscapes, and bodyscapes.

But ever since COVID made us social distance, DW and I found ourselves going on nature walks with our cameras in tow. And in our kayaks, when we were surrounded by wildlife, we started taking more and more photos of birds.

It was on our first trip to Costa Rica, in 2024, that we really took an interest in birds. On that trip, DW had her Canon M50 with a 55–200mm lens; I brought my Nikon D7200 with my 70–300mm lens, and we were able to capture some decent bird photos, though we found the reach of our cameras could have been better.

Before we travelled to Peru, last year, I told DW that I wanted to get a more-powerful zoom for my camera, and that's when I bought the Nikon AF-S 200–500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens. It's a beast of a lens, at 2.3kg, but I was able to zoom in so much better.

I noticed, on our return from Peru, that my shoulders were sore and I needed some recovery time, though I later found out that I have tendonosis in both shoulders and osteoarthritis in my left shoulder. Wielding this lens—on top of my other gear—didn't help.

Still, I kept the lens and brought it with me on this recent return to Costa Rica. Over Christmas, in anticipation of this trip, DW traded in her M50 and gear for a Canon R7 body and an RF 100–400mm f/5.6–8 zoom.

We had logged 70 birds on our previous trip and we were determined to break that record. This trip to Costa Rica was going to be primarily about exploring a new part of this country but would also heavily involve nature photography.

Our friends, Bee and Marc, who had never been to Costa Rica, were keen to do whatever we set out to do. Marc, being a nature lover, was also interested in seeing and photographing birds, but had sold his camera gear years ago, so I loaned him my D7200 and 70—300mm lens, whilst I used my big-ass telephoto on my Nikon D750.

With the crop-sensor camera, Marc had essentially a 450mm reach, or nine-times magnification, next to my full-frame 500mm, 10-times reach.

On the third morning of our vacation, we awoke to the sound of rain pouring onto the roof of our Finca Verde cabins, and we decided that we had had enough of the rain. We pondered what we'd do to get away from the Bijagua area and decided that we'd take a 90-minute drive, over the continental divide, to the Palo Verde National Park, in Guanacaste.

Immediately after crossing the divide, less than 20 minutes into our drive, the rain stopped, the clouds disappeared, and the ground looked dry. By the time we reached the national park, the temperature climbed and the landscape was arrid.

The first stop was at a boardwalk that looked out onto wetlands on an open plain. In the swampy water, a tractor with wide, steel tires on the rear was mowing down the growth around this boardwalk. And behind it, myriad birds were taking off, soaring overhead, and coming in for a landing.

We saw and captured so many birds:

• Purple Gallinules
• Fulvous Whistling-Ducks
• Northern Jacanas
• Southern Lapwings
• Limpkins
• Common Gallinules
• Jabirus
• Snowy Egrets
• Wood Storks
• Glossy Ibises
• Snail Kites

One bird that surprised us was the Red-Wing Blackbird. We see them year-round in Ottawa and didn't realize that they live all the way down in Central America.

When we had our fill of birds from this vantage, and also because the noon-day sun was beginning to bake us in the open, we got back in our SUV and drove until the road came to an end at a river. A man with a boat offered to take us on a ride for an hour, and after some negotiating on the price (from 60,000 colones to 30,000, or about $75 CAD for the four of us).

The river bank was teeming with wildlife. As soon as we left the dock, DW spotted a Boat-Billed Heron hiding in a tree along the bank. Our guide moved his boat to where we could get a better vantage, and I was lucky enough to capture it as it opened its mouth, as if to yawn.

There were so many varieties of heron along the river:

• Bare-Throated Tiger
• Green
• Little Blue
• Great Blue (we have them throughout Eastern Ontario)

We also saw more Snowy Egrets as well as Social Flycatchers, Tropical Kingbirds, Great Kiskadees, Barn Swallows, and more.

And, of course scores of crocodiles in the mud. And lizards. And iguanas. And monkeys.

By the time we were ready to head back to the rainforest, we had spotted well over 21 different bird varieties and other wildlife.

We may be amateur birders but we certainly got our share of birds on this trip. In all, we heard and/or saw at least 92 varieties of bird, including birds that weren't on our bucket list for this trip but they were birds that we hoped to see, including that Boat-Billed Heron.

I got more and more familiar with my 200–500mm lens and was able to quickly set up my camera for when I was switching from landscape photography to bird photography. I'll share my preferred settings in an upcoming blog post.

Next up, our time along the Pacific coast, which I'll share next week.

Happy Friday!