Tours / Costa Rica / May 2027
Dates forming Early May 2027 · not yet fixed
Costa Rica · May 2027
Caribbean lowlands to cloud forest, at the pace the birds set
12–14 days
Length
Early May 2027
Dates forming
7 regions
38–2,200 m
Max 8
Guests, total
TBC
Per person
The trip
A longer trip than the first one, with more regions on the route and a day of boat work on the water that the first one did not have.
Dates are not fixed yet. Registering interest costs nothing, shapes the group, and gets you first word when the dates are set.
The route is planned day by day and the stays along it are held. What is still moving is the exact start date and the final length — twelve to fourteen days, in early May.
The route
The route is built out of kinds of country, not distances. Each holds birds the others do not. What separates them is not just elevation but the ecosystem that comes with it, and that governs the rest: which species, which light, what goes in the bag. Elevation is the part you can draw, so it is the spine of the page.
This is the plan as it stands, not a promise. While the dates are still being set a region can be swapped, a night moved, or the order changed. The size of the group is settled; the length and which places it visits are still being worked out.
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Central Valley, Heredia Province
Santo Domingo de Heredia
A gentle start after a long travel day. Landscaped grounds with enough birds and flowers to shake the gear down and get your settings sorted before the real work begins — Lesson's motmots, Hoffmann's woodpecker, white-eared ground-sparrows working the undergrowth, and a mottled owl if the evening cooperates.
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Talamanca highlands, San José Province
San Gerardo de Dota
The high point, and it comes early. Mist-veiled highlands, moss-draped trails and filtered light. Highland hummingbirds, tanagers, brush-finches and thrushes, with a full morning given over to the resplendent quetzal — a real possibility, never a promise. Spotted wood-quail are likelier here than you would guess.
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Caribbean foothills, Cartago Province
Turrialba
New for 2027. The Turrialba valley and the slopes above it — a different hummingbird community again, and the bridge between the highlands and the lowlands. The snowcap is the bird this leg is arranged around: a plum-purple hummingbird the size of a thumb, white-capped, and found almost nowhere else on earth. A garden morning nearby adds the white-throated crake and the black-cowled oriole, and an afternoon by water adds the birds that come with it.
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Caribbean lowlands, Heredia Province
Sarapiquí
New for 2027. Lowland forest and river edge, and the first proper stretch of lowland heat. A reserve morning for white-collared manakins, rufous-tailed jacamars, woodpeckers and butterflies; then feeders and flowering plants pulling in tanagers, honeycreepers, lowland hummingbirds and toucans under conditions you can actually work with.
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Northern lowlands, Alajuela Province
Boca Tapada
The northern lowlands. The vulture blind is the reason to come — eye-level work at birds most people only ever see circling, king vultures among them. There is a macro session too: frogs and snakes, worked slowly and close.
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Northern wetlands, Alajuela Province
Caño Negro
New for 2027. Two boat trips in a single day, on two different river systems: a full morning on one, a full afternoon on the other. Mostly handheld, from a drifting boat at water level — a lower angle than anywhere else on the trip, and two goes at it in two different lights.
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Central Valley, Alajuela Province
Alajuela
Not just a bed near the airport. The last afternoon is worked — garden birds, and a real chance at the ferruginous pygmy-owl — before the night to repack and the transfer out.
What the trip is built around
Not a list of species — nobody can promise those. These are the kinds of session the route is arranged to give you time at.
Hummingbirds
Three elevations and three different communities — the highland birds at two thousand two hundred metres are not the foothill ones at a thousand, and neither are the lowland ones. Feeders and flowering gardens they already trust, so you get the repetition to work a frame rather than snatch it. All of it in natural light on this departure.
Tanagers and honeycreepers
Fruiting plants and feeders bring them in close and keep bringing them back. That repetition is what makes a clean perch and a clean background possible at all.
Toucans
Big, loud, and less shy than they ought to be. The bill against wet green is the frame everyone wants, and the lowlands are where it happens.
The vulture blind
Ground-level work from a hide, close enough that the bare skin of the head fills the frame. Most people only ever see these birds from underneath. Here you are level with them, and there long enough to stop shooting everything and start waiting for the posture you want.
Wetlands from a boat
Two trips in one day, on two different river systems. There is no room for a tripod; a monopod takes the weight, but the steadying is yours either way, from a boat drifting under you. It is harder than it sounds, and it puts you at water level, which is an angle you cannot get from a bank.
Macro
Close enough that texture becomes the subject — the skin of a red-eyed tree frog, the scale pattern on a snake, water sitting on a leaf. Detail you cannot see standing up, and a different kind of patience from waiting on a bird.
What it will cost
The fare for this departure is not set yet. Anyone who has been in touch hears the figure as soon as it is fixed.
Every Framing Feathers tour is all-inclusive on the ground: lodging, meals, transport, transfers, guides and instruction. You book your own flights.
The group is 8 people in total, photographers and guests alike — so a photographer bringing a partner is booking two of the 8 spots.
Nothing is collected until this departure is confirmed on 15 December 2026 — putting your name down before then costs nothing. If it is not going ahead you will hear from me that day, and you will owe nothing.
The fare is per person, double occupancy — if you book on your own, you will share a twin room with another participant of the same gender, and couples are never split up. A single room is sometimes possible depending on how the group fills, but May is peak season and extra rooms cannot be held, so ask early and I will tell you honestly whether it can be done.
Full booking terms — cancellation, refunds and travel insurance.
Non-photographer guests are welcome — lodges, landscapes and the road. Everyone travelling with the group must be 21 or over.
What's in and what isn't
Included
- Double occupancy lodging for the full tour
- All ground transportation
- Airport transfers
- Meals and non-alcoholic drinks
- Expert local guides
- Photography instruction and image reviews
- Species checklist
Not included
- Flights to and from San José
- Alcoholic beverages
- Travel insurance and medical costs
- Laundry services
- Gratuities
- Additional activities not listed
- Extra nights beyond the tour dates
Practicalities
Physical demand
Gentle — no long hikes. The boat day asks the most of you: stepping in and out of a small boat, and holding a long lens up for a morning and an afternoon with no tripod under it. Most photography happens within lodge grounds or a short walk from the vehicle, and the pace is set by the group rather than the schedule. If you are comfortable walking on uneven ground for short distances, you are ready.
Weather
Warm, humid lowlands; cool highland mornings; afternoon showers most days; and a day on the water in a half-covered boat, where the shade does not reach the best angles. Changing conditions often bring the best light.
Led by
Eric Patdu, and local Costa Rican guides. Travel between regions is by private vehicle.
Start and end
San José (SJO), with the first night in Santo Domingo de Heredia and the last in Alajuela. Airport transfers are included; flights are not.
What to bring
None of it is compulsory. This is what makes the difference between a good trip and a full memory card. Ask me if you're unsure — I'd rather advise beforehand than watch you wish you'd packed differently.
Bring
- Super-zoom lens — 400mm minimum for birds
- Tripod for low light and after-dark work
- Spare batteries and memory cards, more than you think
- Rain cover for body and lens
- A poncho or a dry sleeve for the boat days — the boats are only half covered, and there is nowhere dry to set anything down
- Waterproof footwear
- Layers — light breathable clothing, a rain jacket, and something warm for highland mornings
- A comfortable, weather-resistant day bag
- Insect repellent, sunscreen, hat
Worth considering
- Second camera body for flexibility and backup
- Prime 500mm or longer
- 24–105mm for landscapes and lodge scenes
- Monopod — takes the weight of a long lens on the boat days and through a long feeder session
- Macro lens for frogs, insects and floral detail
- Laptop for image reviews and backups
- Binoculars
What the last one produced
This route has run before. Costa Rica · May 2026 has the frames that came back from it, the survey the group filled in afterwards, and the route exactly as it happened.
Register interest
Tell me a little about how you shoot and I'll know what to plan around — which hides to book, how much flash gear to bring, how long to sit at the feeders. Not ready to commit? The first question on the form lets you ask something instead — same form, no obligation.