the Lion bird of La Paz

Late in the trip we spent much of a day at the La Paz waterfall gardens as we worked our way back to San Jose.  This site had a little of everything, hummingbird feeders, an aviary, monkey house, a few restaurants, a fairly extensive trail system I would have like to have explored further, and oh yeah, really impressive waterbirds.  This site would count as upper mid elevations, and had somewhat similar birds to what we encountered in continuous rain at Tapanti a few years ago.

Looks at a number of species, even given limited time, were much better this time though.  I've always thought Prong-billed Barbets looked like they have lion manes.

Slaty-backed Nightengale-thrush is another bird I only saw in really awful light at Tapanti.  This one came up to our feet.

Spangle-cheeked Tanager is one of my favorite Costa Rican birds, this was the best look I've had of one since my lifer Spangle-cheeked on my first Costa Rica trip.

A slightly different elevation meant different hummingbirds.  Purple-throated Mountain-gem was a lot more common here.

These are my first useable Black-bellied Hummingbird photos, another upper mid elevation specialist.

Staying here would have been prohibitively expensive with the whole family, but if I ever go back with a very small group, I think I would return here.