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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Costa Rica Birds Panama Species 264

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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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

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. Only two of us got a glimpse but that was enough to add it to our long list of species for the day.

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Costa Rica Wildlife Tennessee Owls 264

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. .”

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Costa Rica Emotional South America Panama 221

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. Similarly, descriptions of species repeated across volumes do not lose their accuracy with each publication.

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Costa Rica Belize El Salvador Birds 246

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. Such a lovely sight. They bring me to other places.

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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. A wonderful variety of bird species are waiting to be seen and among them are many a birder’s favorite avian group, the wood-warblers. In the birding world, May is the beautiful time. Great Green Macaw!

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Costa Rica Species Belize New Jersey 203

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2019

It’s also a big time for bird movements, a period punctuated by waves of migrants, first the early ones, then a time of many species, and finally, those last “late” migrants moving north. Wood Thrushe s are already singing in some places, although not in Costa Rica. .

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Costa Rica South America Tennessee Philadelphia 191

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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Costa Rica Solomon Islands Wisconsin Farming 189

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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Costa Rica Panama Nashville Baltimore 264

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 187

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 19, 2015

However, that doesn’t mean that the bird species in question is necessarily endangered. 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.

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Costa Rica Panama Eagles Sparrows 169

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

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. Brainbird: A species of bird that one has not previously heard of. Ironically (and perhaps sadly), he had already seen a male of this species just a few days before. Black-thighed Grosbeak.

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Costa Rica Birds 2013 Breeding 209

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

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. Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Northern Central America covers 827 species, including resident, migratory, and common vagrant birds.

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10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2024

When a birder uses the word, we usually refer to a species that canbe mostly or exclusively found in a single country. 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. More evidence of resilience?

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Costa Rica Mexico Lions North America 245

10,000 Birds

MAY 10, 2024

There are 154 species of cuckoos in the world, and they’re all a fascinating bunch. 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.

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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

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

JUNE 21, 2018

When you compare the species richness not per country, but per square kilometre, that is when you get a more realistic picture, and then those tiny tropical countries rightfully stand out in the spotlights. Best timing here is the dry season, June to September, when most birds are breeding (3). Mongabay.com has done exactly that.

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Rwanda Equatorial Guinea El Salvador Costa Rica 240

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

JANUARY 9, 2019

In the end, I truly did set out to reduce the number of birds that I feature here from 1302, my years total species, down to 10-12. 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. I finally caught this one in the Alexander Skutch Bird Sanctuary.

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2018 Costa Rica South Africa New Zealand 203

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). Finch a la yellow thighs.

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Breeding Costa Rica Birds Panama 109

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2022

Every place has its common birds, the species that do very well in a given habitat. As we like to say, these are species that are “hard to miss”, birds that, if you are watching, will be seen. In most places, the number of birds makes it a challenge to pick just one signature species, Costa Rica included.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

Many Nearctic species and families reach their southern terminus in the Northern Central American Highlands, such as Common Raven , Red Crossbill , Steller’s Jay , and even Brown Creeper. Alex also masterfully worked another tricky species into view for us during that first afternoon, Ruddy Crake (a close relative of the Black Rail ).

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Honduras El Salvador Costa Rica Arizona 254

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 ? I hope I see a White-bellied Mountain-gem.

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10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2013

It is one of three species of ani ( Groove-billed and Greater Anis are the other two) and together form a unique branch in the cuckoo family. According to the Florida Breeding Bird Atlas, the first confirmed breeding record was in Miami in July of 1938. Petersburg area and Cape Canaveral.

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

Covering 1,261 species with data and taxonomy current up to August 2017, the field guide is an exciting achievement. And, then there are the more familiar birds–Wood-warblers, sandpipers, hawks–some species migrants, some species with a wide range. Can you guess which of the species cited above are endemic?

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America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 214

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.

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Israel Costa Rica Eagles Raised 189

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2012

The Rose-ringed Parakeet’s European (=feral) range is surprisingly coherent for an introduced bird that is dependent on large metropolitan areas, and the species occurs in very decent numbers from UK’s London throughout the Netherland’s large cities all the way up along the Rhine to Germany’s Heidelberg.

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Germany Netherlands Zoos Costa Rica 255

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

The brilliant orange coloration and rich, haunting song of the Spot-breasted Oriole ( Icterus pectoralis ) makes this species one of my favorite permanent residents in southeastern Florida, even though it is an introduced exotic. How can an introduced species be a favorite among birders? Don’t they compete with native birds?

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Miami Costa Rica Florida 2005 211

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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Blackbirds Trinidad Costa Rica Nicaragua 174

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2013

The Black Swift is considered a Species of Special Concern in California. The Black Swift is considered a Species of Special Concern in California. Even though the overall breeding range remains largely unchanged from that in the 1940′s, the entire coastal population has been in recent severe decline.

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