Costa Rica is one of those places that is a wildlife photographers dream. The sheer amount of biodiversity in this small country truly boggles the mind. In early December, I had the opportunity to lead our Resplendent Quetzal and Wildlife of Costa Rica trips. This was my third time running our workshops in Costa Rica and each time I go, the excitement is high because I know each trip offers new and exciting photo opportunities.

We began our first trip focusing on what is arguably the most beautiful bird in the world: the resplendent quetzal. This iconic member of the trogon family features bright iridescent colors and a long sweeping tail cover. The Aztecs and Mayans considered this bird to be a symbol of goodness and light. One glimpse of this magnificent bird and it is easy to see how it has captivated cultures for generations and generations.

After loading up the van, we left behind the hustle and bustle of San Jose and slowly climbed into the cloud forest. A few hours later, we arrived at San Gerado de Dota, a small mountain community nestled in a steep valley high in the cloud forest. This small valley is world renowned for its variety of birds including a plethora of quetzals whole inhabit the area. After getting settled in our lodge, we quickly got to work photographing the local hummingbirds and tanagers.

We were up early the next morning for our quetzal safari. While quetzals are a relatively common bird in this area, their behavioral patterns and quickness can still make them tricky to spot. Thankfully our local guide Marino knew just where to take us. We got set up, and then had to wait and hope the quetzal would make an appearance. Right on cue, I saw a flash of green out of the corner of my eye. The quetzal came and went from perch to perch, offering us quite a few opportunities for nice photos.

We also had a chance to visit the Batsu birding gardens, a great place to photograph hummingbirds and fruit eaters. This place had birds coming and going constantly, creating lots of photos opportunities with a variety of backgrounds. It was super productive for our group, but maybe the best part of the experience was eating at Alma de Arbol, one of my favorite restaurants on any BCJ trip anywhere!

After a short, but productive trip, we made our way back to San Jose where we would say goodbye to some guests and hello to some new faces as we began our Wildlife of Costa Rica trip. This departure would take place on the Osa Peninsula, one of the most biodiverse locations in Costa Rica.

As soon as our plane touched down in Puerto Jiménez, we loaded up the vehicles and were on our way to start making images. Our first stop was a macro session in the forest just outside of town. Our partners here spend the morning finding smaller animals for us to photograph before letting them back into the forest. We had opportunities to photograph the iconic red-eye tree frog, gladiator tree frog, basilisk lizards, green parrot snakes, and many more critters.

After our macro session we got settled into our hotel. We stayed in a beautiful property right on the beach with monkeys traversing the trees and macaws flying overhead. We were set up to have a great week! The next morning we left bright and early for a wildlife hike along one of the Osa’s coastal trails. We worked our way through the forest, photographing whatever we could find. We stopped for a family of howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, a few yellow throated toucans, and we even saw a spectacled owl! We left with full memory cards that morning.

The scarlet macaw is such a beautiful and iconic bird and was a priority for our group. Thankfully our hotel property is full of the type of trees they like to eat from. Each afternoon we would relax around the hotel with a cold drink waiting for the macaws to come by. All we had to do was wait for their loud, distinct screech as they approached and run out to the trees and see where they landed. We focused on photographing them several nights in a row and were eventually rewarded with shots of them in some great situations. I love to approach wildlife photography with persistence and consistency. That is usually how you can go beyond just getting a picture of a species, to creating some fine art photos of that animal. We were excited with the macaw images we were able to create.

One of the highlights of our trip was our trek into Corcovado National Park. Corcovado is a massive park of untouched land and is one of the most biodiverse places on earth. We woke early to catch our boat ride to the heart of the park where we would hit the trail looking for wildlife. After getting checked in with the rangers, we were off and it wasn’t long before we had spotted squirrel and spider monkeys. This officially meant we had seen and photographed all four species of monkeys on the Osa Peninsula. We continued on shooting birds, butterflies, peccaries, and even a pair of sleeping tapirs. We had a good lunch at the Sirena Ranger station and no one managed to turn down the ice cream in the gift shop.

The last stop of our trip on the Osa was to our friends at La Perica Sloth Gardens. La Perica is a family owned farm that transitioned to sloth tourism once their grandma noticed how many sloths live on the property. These sloths are wild and not fed, but are always around because of it is their preferred habitat. This makes it an excellent place to see and photograph one of Costa Rica’s most loved animals. We were lucky with our visit seeing 7+ sloths, including a two toed sloth in a nice setting. We wrapped the day with their famous homemade empanadas and made our way back to the airstrip to return to San Jose.

Costa Rica had delivered again, providing photo opportunities with more animals than I could keep track of. Thanks to all who came and made it a great trip. Already looking forward to the next one!