10,000 Birds

APRIL 24, 2021

They covered so much water so quickly, so effortlessly, I understood how they could wander from Hawaii to Costa Rica, make steady constant progress over countless kilometers of waves and deep blue water. An expected offshore bird in Costa Rica, the small bicolored shearwater was one of many targets during our 7 hour sojourn.

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10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2019

In October, it’s what’s happening in Costa Rica. Our big month of bird movements in Costa Rica, the 10th month of the year, is when most of the swallows, Scarlet Tanagers , thrushes, and other species on the South American express push through. What Scarlet Tanagers look like in October Costa Rica.

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10,000 Birds

JUNE 10, 2022

Once you get to Costa Rica, you’ll already know those birds so well, it will be like meeting distant family members and famous folks for the very first time.Over and over! In brief, you’ll be ready for those birds in Costa Rica, ready to soak them up and have a fantastic trip. Right, say what?!

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10,000 Birds

MAY 14, 2022

In Costa Rica, we enjoy healthy numbers of Whimbrels , a few annual wintering Long-billed Curlews that choose to lord over the flats of the Gulf of Nicoya, and good numbers of an equally impressive prairie bird, the Marbled Godwit. It has become apparent that a chosen few Hudsonian Godwits make occasional stops in Costa Rica.

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10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2022

In mountainous Costa Rica, that can translate to such disasters as flooding, landslides, and road closures. Fortunately, my partner and I had a back-up plan, one that was more relaxed than an all out Big Day and that would also bring us to one of our favorite areas of Costa Rica, the southern Caribbean zone.

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Costa Rica San Jose Falcons Owls 279

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Nothing against the Rocky Pigeon but let’s be honest, if a breeding plumaged Blackburnian Warbler hops into view, It’s pretty easy to forget about that pigeon, Warbling Vireo , or even a Pine Warbler when you can treat the good old retinas to a striking combination of red-orange, black, and white. Hope to see you here!

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Costa Rica Emotional South America Panama 238

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2021

It takes a detour to reach Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge in Costa Rica but oh how the trip is worth it. An uncommon species in Costa Rica, it was in a brushy area that reminded me of its breeding grounds. What can I say but go to Cano Negro when visiting Costa Rica. Agami Heron. 171 Species.

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Costa Rica Wildlife Tennessee Owls 264

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

It’s an exciting time for birding in Costa Rica. Migration is happening in Costa Rica and the avian movements are fierce. The birding community in Costa Rica is also psyched by the passage of shorebirds, thousands of which move through the country. The pallid wave chaser also winters in Costa Rica.

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10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Howell and Dale Dyer and Birds of Costa Rica by Dale Dyer and Steve N. An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell. Steve Howell has spent decades of experience in the field studying the birds of Belize, Costa Rica, and especially Mexico.

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Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 246

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2019

This is the vital time to get outside and see what’s around because lifers could be in the neighborhood, rarely seen species might be just around the corner, and each and every “regular” bird is decked out in beautiful breeding plumage, many also filling the outdoor audio scene with song.

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Costa Rica South America Tennessee Philadelphia 196

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2017

In Costa Rica, instead of frogmouths, we have equally weird and wonderful potoos. I never stop birding no matter where I am, Costa Rica included. Once they leave the breeding grounds, those long-winged elegant cuckoos become veritable black ops birds of the first order. This one is photo friendly at several sites.

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10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 19, 2015

For example, in Costa Rica, we have Eastern Phoebe on the list because one lone, very lost (or extremely adventurous) individual took a really big detour at Pismo Beach instead of making a short flight to wintering grounds much closer to home. Yep, as silly as it sounds, those are a few of the rare birds I would chase in Costa Rica!

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Costa Rica Panama Eagles Sparrows 185

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2018

These are the summer months of the northern hemisphere and yet this time of year in Costa Rica is known as the “invierno”, Spanish for “winter” However, no matter how adapted I become to the local culture, I just can’t use that word in Costa Rica. Sound nice?

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Costa Rica Birds Parrots Species 188

10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2020

In Costa Rica, well…not so much. Yes, the birding is truly exciting but we just don’t have the annual parade of breeding plumaged, singing warblers, grosbeaks, and orioles. A bird of the high elevation cloud forest, this stunner only occurs in Costa Rica and western Panama. Slate-throated Redstart.

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10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2019

With birds bedecked in their breeding best and filling the air with song, this is migration at its loveliest. Threatened by loss of habitat both on breeding as well as wintering grounds, a few species have even become endangered or at least on a perilous track towards that worrisome designation.

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Costa Rica Species Belize New Jersey 203

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2015

It was that way for my first Indigo Bunting (a male that absorbed all light and sang in morning wet forests of northeastern Pennsylvania in 1979), and my first Brown Noddy seen from a ferry in Costa Rica earlier this year. I had missed the short-legged tern on pelagic trips and never made it to any of its breeding grounds.

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Costa Rica Pennsylvania Birds North America 150

10,000 Birds

JUNE 24, 2017

Yep, come to Costa Rica to cool off! Plant as many trees as you can, support organic, locally produced food, don’t buy products associated with deforestation, and feel good about coming down to Costa Rica. You won’t find any glaciers in Costa Rica but you can certainly escape the heat.

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10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2013

On a recent Costa Rica trip, one of these was called out while an epic mixed flock was demolishing the forest around us. Costa Rica offers so many amazing birds that even birds like this, which can change everything for a birder, can take one by surprise. Black-thighed Grosbeak.

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10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2017

Shorebirds are part of the avian scene in Costa Rica, pretty much all year long. Even more pass through Costa Rica during spring and fall migration, and in summer, you can cross paths with an errant Whimbrel and other shorebirds that opt to extend the vacation in Costa Rica rather than heading way north to the boggy breeding grounds.

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10,000 Birds

APRIL 14, 2018

In Costa Rica, April is much more stable. The birds also need it because this is when they build nests and breed. It’s a good time to be in Costa Rica. As the local birds get into breeding mode, some others take advantage of the nesting to feed broods of their own. Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher.

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Costa Rica Blackbirds Texas Geese 100

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2016

When I went to Honduras in 2014, I was advised to use The Birds of Costa Rica by Richard Garrigues and Robert Dean (2014) and The Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America by Steve N.G. It has been a long time between field guides for most of these countries. Howell and Sophie Webb (a classic, but big and published in 1995).

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10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 30, 2017

Costa Rica? Although Cocos Island is halfway between Costa Rica and the Galapagos, we are still talking about hundreds of kilometers of ocean between us and the place of the big tortoises. The Galapagos Islands?

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10,000 Birds

JUNE 11, 2016

In Costa Rica, June is breeding bird count season. As one might expect with a breeding bird count, it also gives me an idea of which birds are where, and whether or not other species are still around (side benefits for guiding on that same route as well as future Big Days).

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10,000 Birds

MAY 28, 2016

With all of those birds singing and showing off their breeding colors, it’s no surprise that we see major bird races like Champions of the Flyway and The World Series of Birding , along with other main birding events like the Global Big Day. They got all three potoo species in Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica Birds Israel Species 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2024

Which means that the large country of Mexico boasts (according to one list) 127 endemic bird species, while the famous birders’ destination of Costa Rica has only 6. And who knows, perhaps it might use this crisis to find a few new breeding grounds, to ensure its survival in the near future?

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10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2019

The birds are now breeding in the area, but are quite happy to keep coming to the daily feeding station in groups of over 100 birds. This bird is 3 inches long, lives in the darkest part of the jungle understory of Costa Rica, and never sits still! I finally caught this one in the Alexander Skutch Bird Sanctuary.

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10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2024

I have encountered a few of the more quirky members of the family, including the brilliant and aptly-named African Emerald Cuckoo, India’s ultra-shy Sirkeer Malkoha, and the fascinating Lesser Ground Cuckoo in Costa Rica. I wonder whether birds that breed in Europe ever meet up with those nest in southern Africa?

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10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2018

And the results are indicative, representative and nothing short of surprising: Brunei, The Gambia, Belize, Jamaica, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, Panama and Haiti top the list. Best timing here is the dry season, June to September, when most birds are breeding (3).

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10,000 Birds

MAY 14, 2016

This Yellow Warbler was looking fresh before it left Costa Rica. How can we say that magic is a farce when the May blossoms are backdropping bright, breeding plumaged Canadas , Magnolias , Chestnut-sideds , chocolate Bay-breasteds , and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks ?

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10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2022

In most places, the number of birds makes it a challenge to pick just one signature species, Costa Rica included. In Costa Rica, one such bird is the Crimson-fronted Parakeet. Watch the buildings, keep an eye on tall trees, this species has become adapted to breeding on ledges and living in cities.

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10,000 Birds

JULY 27, 2013

Trinidad is the northern limit of the range of the Red-breasted Blackbird , though it is unclear if the occasional birds that show up in Tobago are wanderers from Trinidad or northern South America or are breeding there. You can also find Red-breasted Blackbirds in Costa Rica and Panama and south to Peru and Brazil.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

We also observed the beautifully patterned Prevost’s Ground-Sparrow , a sparrow very different from the ones that go by the same name in Costa Rica. This reserve is also home to a healthy population of the nominate subspecies of Resplendent Quetzal , which has an even more extravagantly long tail than the ones in Costa Rica.

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Honduras El Salvador Costa Rica Arizona 254

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2016

For those who happen to be faithful followers of posts about birding in Costa Rica, no, you haven’t accidentally browsed to the wrong place. It might not be Costa Rica, but it is one of the most important, birdiest events on the planet, and checking it out was a dream come true. VisitIsrael!

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Israel Costa Rica Eagles Raised 189

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2013

According to the Florida Breeding Bird Atlas, the first confirmed breeding record was in Miami in July of 1938. A lone Smooth-billed Ani, dubbed the ‘Orphan Ani’ by locals, that lingered for months at Anhinga Trail in 2010.

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10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

Its native range stretches from the southern Pacific coast of Mexico south to northwestern Costa Rica, where it is an inhabitant of arid to semihumid woodland and open areas with scattered trees. Despite being tainted with this fact, I will sheepishly admit that this oriole is a welcome enrichment to our local avifauna.

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Miami Costa Rica Florida 2005 230

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2017

The Black-and-white Phainoptila , Phainoptila melanoxantha from Costa Rica and Panama. Then there is the Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher , Ptilogonys caudatus , living in some of the high mountains of Costa Rica and Panama. The females are a dark, slate colored gray, with much more obvious white edges on the wing feathers.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

The guide covers the all–1194 species in the Species Accounts, including 959 native breeding species, 219 Nearctic migrants, 8 breeding visiting species, and 5 introduced species. Of the native breeding species, 112 are endemic or “very nearly endemic.” (Can Press, 2010), The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide, 2nd ed.by

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