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Tico Explorers

Explore Northern Plains

Costa Rica’s Northern Plains connect rural communities with rivers, forests and the wider Arenal landscape. Places such as La Fortuna, Guatuso and Los Chiles offer different ways to learn about life shaped by water and land. Explore with curiosity, learn from local people and help care for the landscapes and traditions that make this place special.

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Scarlet Passionflower

Scarlet passionflower is a climbing vine with vivid red flowers and curling tendrils.

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Firebush

Firebush is a shrub with clusters of narrow orange to red tubular flowers.

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Golden Trumpet

Golden trumpet is a South American ornamental cultivated and naturalized in Costa Rica.

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Torch Ginger

A pink torch-shaped display rises on a stalk separate from the leafy canes.

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Red Ginger

Red ginger is an introduced ornamental grown in moist tropical gardens.

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Great Blue Heron

This large heron searches shallow water for fish and other small animals.

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Great Egret

The Great Egret is a large white wading bird that hunts by waiting or walking slowly in shallow water.

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Little Blue Heron

Adults have slate-blue bodies and purplish heads and necks.

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Boat-billed Heron

The Boat-billed Heron has an unusually wide flattened bill and large dark eyes.

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Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

This robust tropical heron uses mangroves and freshwater wetlands.

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Wood Stork

The Wood Stork is a large white wader with black flight feathers and a mostly bare dark adult head.

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Neotropic Cormorant

This dark waterbird catches fish by diving and swimming underwater.

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