All across this birding mecca, lodges and preserves lure the birds so you don’t have to go looking for them. Is it a good idea?
By Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal
Before noon on our first day in Costa Rica, a spectacular Collared Trogon flew right up to us and perched not 10 feet from where we stood. This was one of the species we’d most hoped to see on this trip – and here it was making an entrance as if part of a welcoming party.
A few minutes later, a Silver-throated Tanager arrived a few feet away on a plank set up at the opening of a bird sanctuary near the capital of San Jose. Flocks of often rare species came and went from the spotted, dotted with bananas, as if it were a small bird stage.
We soon learned that almost every preserve, lodge and sanctuary devoted to Costa Rica’s massive bounty of birds includes a feeding station of some kind. They attract birds that otherwise can be tough to find without hours of hiking, hiring a local guide and a little luck.
For visiting birders and photographers, the stations are hard to resist. Not only does a revolving cast of hundreds of species come through, the birds tend to hang around as they feed, turning this way and that as if on a photo shoot.
A tougher question is whether the feeding stations are good for birds themselves. Whenever the topic came up with guides and preserve staffers, we’d get answers that landed all over the map: The feeding highlights birds and attracts more than just birders. They teach people about these gifts of nature and can help promote conservation. On the other hand, the tradition clearly alters the natural cycles of these wild species.
Bird feeders of all kinds can be found everywhere, of course, in backyards across the world. In the U.S., people spend an estimated $4 billion on bird feed each year. But the feeding stations in South and Central America reach an entirely different level: They range from giant contraptions raised into the air with the help of pullies to multi-level wooden frames that can make room for dozens of birds at a time.
We were struck by the irony that birders who travel from all over the world to see and photograph these renown wild bird populations will spend at least some of their time parked in chairs and on benches waiting for the birds to come to them.
One of our favorite guides, Gabriel Rodriquez, who spent two days with us in Northern Costa Rica, waved away concerns about the impact of feeders on the birds. “Many people think the birds depend on them, but that’s not true,’’ he said. “To the birds, it doesn’t matter.’’ He sees the feeders as a small break in the birds’ hard work of gathering sustenance. “Who says ‘no’ to free food?’’ he laughed.
Others say the dynamic is more complicated. “Anything that is artificial or that’s manipulated by us, it’s not good for them because it breaks their normal behavior,” said Raul Fernandez, whose family runs a busy lodge high in the Costa Rica mountains that specializes in birds. “But the way I see it, you are letting people see the birds in a better way, an easier way. It lets them see their beauty and appreciate their beauty.’’
Here are some of the birds we spotted at or hanging around feeding stations during our trip all across the country:
The birds seems to know just when the feasting will be at its best, often at set times during the day. As the bananas, mangos and watermelon are replinished, the birds begin to congregate. In some cases, they wait patiently for their fellow diners to finish. In other cases, it’s more or less a food fight.
The one issue with the feeders everyone agrees with is that they need to be maintained well and kept cleaned. The guides we talked to all knew exactly which lodges did a good job — and which didn’t. Here was the scene at one gathering place on the side of a highway where hundreds of birds congregated around a series of feeders, many of which weren’t well kept up.
But most of the lodges and sanctuaries seemed to recognize that if the birds aren’t well cared for, they won’t thrive, and if they don’t thrive, then the birders won’t show up. Costa Rica has built one of South America’s most successful tourism trade, partly by highlighting its enormous and varied bird population. Here, you don’t have to be an experienced birder. Average tourists cannot help but see and enjoy the exotic tableau of all sorts of birds they’ve never seen before.
As Raul Fernandez sees it, that’s good not just for the birders, but for the birds themselves.
“You cannot protect something that you don’t love, and in order to love something, you first have to know it. That happens when they see the birds around the feeding stations and see their beauty,” he said. “And when they see the birds, and get to know them and start interacting with them, they start protecting them, right?”
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