Caño Negro National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica

Caño Negro is quite off the beaten path, but worth the effort. Most visits start out at Los Chiles where you board a boat and glide up the Río Frío through canyons of green towards the everglade like Lago Caño Negro. Migration plays a big role in the population of the waterways; you may see a bull shark's fin slice the surface; this area is the end of their annual trip up the Río Nicaragua from the sea, but most people come to spot migratory birds.

spider monkey flying (photo © R. Krueger-Koplin)

Squirrel monkey literally flying between the trees
on the banks of the Río Frío. (photo © R. Krueger-Koplin)

Attractions
Birdwatching
During the green (rainy) season from May to October, water from the mountains is plentiful and the Río Frío overflows its banks to form Lago Caño Negro positioned smack in the middle of the flyway for migrant North and South American birds. Millions of birds arrive here to winter over during the dry season beginning in December. The water level falls continuously for the next three to four months until all that is left is the main channel of the Río Frío and the migrants depart.

Among the many birds found in Caño Negro are: glossy Ibis, black-necked stilt, neotropical cormorants, American anhinga, northern jacana, American widgeon, wood stork, white Ibis, black-bellied tree duck, northern shoveler, snail kite, green backed heron, roseate spoonbill, and blue-winged teal. This is one of the best places to see the Nicaraguan grackle, whose only Costa Rican habitat is Caño Negro and other marshy areas just south of Lake Nicaragua.

Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodylus) along banks of the Río Frío.
(photo © R. Krueger-Koplin)

Fishing
The Río Frío has good fishing for snook, guapote, alligator gar, drum, and huge tarpon (fish stories claim up to 100 kg or 220 lbs). Fishing is allowed in the reserve from July 1 to March 31, license $US 30 from the ranger station in Caño Negro village. There are no established high profile fishing guide outfits currently operating, but if you are willing to round up a boat and provide most of your own tackle, Caño Negro is a well kept fishing secret.

In the region:
East of Los Chiles, the Río Medio Queso spreads into a shallow wetlands when rainfall is plentiful. The region near the border is officially protected by the Corredor Fronterízo National Wildlife Refuge, but the whole area is excellent for wildlife viewing.

Sue, our bikes and panniers pulling away from the
dock at Los Chiles (photo © R. Krueger-Koplin)

Caño Negro isn't particularly near anything. When we visited, we embarked on a small boat at Los Chiles with our bicycles stacked to one side spent the cay on the river and lake then disembarked at Caño Negro village, where we continued west and south. If you are traveling by bus, your only option is back towards La Fortuna Arenal and San José. If you are driving, there is no bridge over the Río Frío at Los Chiles, you have to turn west off the main road about 6 miles (10 km) south to reach the nearest bridge at San Emilio to drive to Caño Negro village and on to Upala (4WD recommended year round and required in the rainy season).

When to visit:
This area has some of the lowest rainfall totals for Costa Rica. Even during the rainy season when the rivers are overflowing their banks, most to the rain is falling farther south then running into this region.
There are advantages to visiting any time of year.

Field Guide to the Wildlife of Costa Rica
by Carrol L. Henderson (Author), Steve Adams (Illustrator), Paperback, 559 pages, Publisher: Univ. of Texas Press; 1st edition, (2002), ISBN: 029273459X

Color photos, species accounts, and distribution maps, for almost three hundred species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, moths, and other invertebrates are complimented by general introductions to each group, the ecology of Costa Rica, and how to travel to see wildlife.

$US 27.97 from Amazon -or-
Barnes&Noble member price $US 30.36

A Guide to the Birds of Panama: With Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras
by Robert S. Ridgely, John A. Gwynne (Contributor), $US 33.25, Paperback, 412 pages, Publisher: Princeton Univ. Pr; 2nd edition, (1992), ISBN: 0691025126

Some tout this volume as superior to A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica by Stiles, Skutch & Gardener. Over 1,000 species, more than 800 illustrated on 48 color plates. While the neotropical birds you are likely to spot in Costa Rica will be in this book, the site specific information is weighted towards Panama. Follows the sequence and taxonomy of the 1983 check-list of the American Ornithologists Union.

$US 33.25 from Amazon -or-
Barnes&Noble member price $US 45.13

Travel & Site Guide to Birds of Costa Rica With Side Trips to Panama
by Aaron D. Sekerak, Aaron D. Sekerak, Eussa Ginger, Elissa Conger (Illustrator), Paperback, 256 pages, Publisher: Lone Pine Publishing, (1996), ISBN: 1551050846

This book is exactly what it says, a guide to birding sites. It is not a field guide with color illustrations etc. That said, it's a useful tool for planning a trip or getting more information about regions you are seeing on an organized tour. Includes some interesting back doors, and info on who to talk to in specific areas about seeing birds. If someone said "I would give $1000 to see a Calliphlox bryantae" you would have to look the common name up in a bird book first, then use the Travel and Site guide to locate a likely locale.

$US 11.87 from Amazon -or-
Barnes&Noble member price $US 16.10