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Despite what some outdated sources claim, the list of bird species reported for CostaRica is much more than 860. The same can be said for CostaRica’s first Red-breasted Merganser , a species first documented for the nation in 2020. Check out the crazy new bird for CostaRica!
Now, a birder could even plan an entire trip to CostaRica with eBird data. Well, you could, BUT there are a few good reasons for maybe not going that bird planning route at least for CostaRica. These are some things to keep in mind when using eBird before, during, and after a trip to CostaRica: Before the trip.
The trees that occur, that thrive in such places are various species of mangroves and as is typical of so many other tropical microhabitats, mangrove forests have their own suite of birds. It’s ironic because even though it doesn’t live anywhere else, even in perfect habitat, the Mangrove Hummingbird is not an abundant species.
After moving to CostaRica in 2007, my fall migration took on a different approach. But it happened nonetheless and if you go birding in CostaRica in September, especially during October, you can’t help but notice. Just as in the north, fall migration in CostaRica doesn’t happen for two or three short weeks.
CostaRica has long been one of the more frequently visited global birding hotspots. Stable, easy to visit, and with lots of accessible habitats, its easy to see why many birders have opted to visit CostaRica on several occasions. Several birds in CostaRica could be endemic or near endemic species level taxa.
Even photos of the rarest of birds can be found, even heart-wrenching images of bird species that are no longer with us. Species like the Gyrfalcon , the aerial powerhouse of the tundra, of stunning, breeding-plumaged May warblers. These are all of the toucan species that occur in CostaRica.
When CostaRica becomes a topic of conversation, we don’t usually hear the word “extinction” being thrown around. But how about when the CostaRica conversation involves a birder? It’s easy to bedazzle the bins with this one when birding in CostaRica. Must be a joke, right?
In CostaRica, we have those living fences, these planted rivulets of green. In pastures of the hot lowlands, they tend to be lines of stunted Gumbo-Limbo trees or some other heavily pruned species. Red-billed Pigeon are common in much of CostaRica. Rufous-tailed Hummingbird and other hummingbird species.
They covered so much water so quickly, so effortlessly, I understood how they could wander from Hawaii to CostaRica, make steady constant progress over countless kilometers of waves and deep blue water. An expected offshore bird in CostaRica, the small bicolored shearwater was one of many targets during our 7 hour sojourn.
There are bird species with the power of personality and feathered friends with super migratory prowess. I live in CostaRica, a place that makes up for the lack of cardinals with trogons, motmots, and like 900 other bird species. I wonder which birds are most popular in CostaRica.
In CostaRica, official, enforced quarantine hasn’t happened yet. At the moment, thanks to the government getting serious about this darn thing earlier rather than later, the number of new cases per day in CostaRica has been very much linear in nature. Barred Antshrike. Rufous-naped Wren. Flame-colored Tanager.
The stars of the bird world take many forms and fame is often related to location but some species, some cool groups of birds are accorded priority no matter when or where they are seen. The Olive-crowned Yellowthroat is one of CostaRica’s resident wood-warbler species. 13 Warbler Stars from the North.
In CostaRica, we have our pewees, 6 species of them. Three live and breed here, two migrate through the country in large numbers (one of those also breeds here in small numbers), and another migrates through and winters in CostaRica. The WEWP is the other pewee that moves through CostaRica in numbers.
In CostaRica, February is a different birding story. It’s also the high season for birding and with good reason; there are hundreds of birds waiting to be seen, some of them migrants from the north but the majority resident tropical species that are easy on the eyes. that are fairly common in CostaRica.
Birders head to CostaRica to see stunners like Resplendent Quetzal , Three-wattled Bellbird , Orange-collared Manakin , fancy hummingbirds , tanagers, and literally hundreds of other birds. These and several other species might end up being armchair ticks if and when we take a closer look at their evolutionary history.
Go to Hispaniola and a birder has the pleasure of admiring two species of tody for the price of one, checking out the odd, mono familiar Palmchat , and listening to the parrotish calls of the White-necked Crow. Go to CostaRica and you will be looking at other birds but you can still get in some Caribbean slope birding.
The birding in CostaRica is always golden but some days, you really do strike gold. Last week in CostaRica, I had the great fortune of finding some of that avian treasure, on this occasion, a Pacific Golden-Plover in the small coastal city of Puntarenas. Might a few occur appear in CostaRica during migration?
In October, it’s what’s happening in CostaRica. Our big month of bird movements in CostaRica, 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 CostaRica.
Birding Experiences is a Costa Rican company owned and run by enthusiastic birdwatchers from CostaRica. In brief, birds are our passion, and we would love to help organize your birdwatching trip to CostaRica. Volunteer reviewer for eBird in CostaRica. Promote bird protection and conservation.
Of the 6 species of quetzal, the one that lives in the cloud forests of Central America usually gets the “most spectacular” badge. And yes, this species lives in Quetzal Valley, a place that actually does exist! Even better, this site near San Ramon, CostaRica is almost too accessible.
Another year of birding in CostaRica has come to an end, another one begins. I bet some tanager flocks will be in the cards; birding in CostaRica tends to deliver. First birds came in the form of migrants and resident species that live in an oasis of precious green space near home. 48 Hummingbird Species.
” During migration, I also see Eastern Wood-Pewees in CostaRica. Living in CostaRica, June is just as warm as the rest of the year. Although Bobolinks are a very rare migrant, lots of other birds are possible, more than enough to rack up hundreds of species over the course of the year.
Similar to 2020, more than 32,000 people participated, 78,000 checklists were submitted, and more than 7,200 bird species were identified. Here’s some of what I learned and was reminded of from an October 9th of birds in CostaRica: Major Birding Doesn’t Stop During a Pandemic. The birding keeps on a happening.
Whatever the reason for getting involved with this massive day of birding, every GBD has been a success where literally thousands of species are found by thousands of birders. I have been able to do that in CostaRica because literally hundreds of bird species can be accessed in a question of hours.
In mountainous CostaRica, 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 CostaRica, the southern Caribbean zone.
It doesn’t get cold in CostaRica. Located a bit north of the equator, it is understandably warm in CostaRica but since we also have elevation, it does get cool and sometimes sort of cold high up there and especially during the night. The temperatures can also cool down a bit when cold fronts arrive from the north.
She also makes a mark with her small size, one of the smallest birds in CostaRica. When you see a photo of a Snowcap, it’s easy to see why this species is a perennial top target for birding trips to CostaRica. King Vulture is regular and various other species are also possible, hawk-eagles included.
Birding in CostaRica wouldn’t be complete without a fine cup of coffee (or two). Smooth, tasty, and rejuvenating, the beans grown in the volcanic soils of CostaRica make some wonderful boost juice. Birds like toucans, tanagers, and fruiting trees with Crested Guans and other rainforest species.
Once you get to CostaRica, 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 CostaRica, ready to soak them up and have a fantastic trip. Right, say what?!
12 species of cuckoos are on the CostaRica bird list. Tortuguero- one of many excellent birding areas in CostaRica. I can’t say the same for the other especially tough cuckoo in CostaRica, the one and only Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo (or RVG as I like to call it). boat ride to Cocos Island.
in the Casa Tangara dowii lodge as I was taking my observation position next to a glass wall, overlooking the bird feeders in the misty cloud forests of CostaRica. Serge told me: The same publisher, Princeton University Press, is working on the new CostaRica guide. It was an early morning last October, 6.40
In terms of birding, they more easily bring us to a vast variety of species, CostaRica included. There are several birds in CostaRica that require walks on forest trails and stalks in deep primary forest but a high percentage can also be seen right from the edge of a road, maybe even from your rental car window.
Many a Larophile has visited CostaRica but not for the love of gulls. Yes, we have gulls and we have terns and a skimmer visiting these here double oceanic shores but Larophiles in CostaRica trade in the gull watching for trogons, manakins, macaws and all the rest. Plovers visit our shores?
A lot of birds take a shorter trip to Florida and the Caribbean, many spend the winter in southern Mexico, and some species even fly all the way to southern Amazonia (this drink is for you Veerys). Not including the vagrants, these are the warblers that regularly frequent green space in CostaRica: Wood-warblers of Cooler Montane Habitats.
In CostaRica, 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 CostaRica.
Even so, he still knew many species and always yearned to learn about the wildlife he encountered. There were also grouse, the Ruffed Grouse , and like so many other species, it just seemed impossible that I would ever see one. Fast forwarding to CostaRica, to be honest, you won’t find any grouse around here.
If the avian realm had self-conscious, talking ambassadors, “spokebirds”, which species would partake in birding conferences? Without careful attention paid to the needs of the shyer birds, such conventions would run the risk of being overrun with the bolder species, the birds that love the spotlight. Ditto for the Kea.
In the Amazon, many more species are accepted as normal, everyday birds including potoos with haunting calls, flocks of screeching parakeets, and dozens of other fantastic birds too loud in voice or plumage to be ignored. For kids in the Yucatan, Turquoise-browed Motmots and parrots are part of the regular avian scene. Is it a bittern?
In birding circles, CostaRica is better known for protected areas, quetzal tours, and glittering displays of hummingbirds than the things that fly in urban spots. I mean, who comes to CostaRica to bird on city streets? Today, in CostaRica, I’m too far south for the Northern Bobwhite.
Few if any species are as emblematic of the Neotropics as Ramphastidae, the family that includes the toucans, toucanets, and aracaris. On the trip to CostaRica that I just returned from I was pleased to see both of those species as well as Black-mandibled Toucan and Keel-billed Toucan. Yeah, it was a heck of a trip.
In CostaRica, we sometimes deal with constant rain but never have to worry about numb toes or seeing just a few birds. But enough of that, now for some highlights from the first count of the season in CostaRica, the 2016 Arenal Christmas Count !: Our eBird list from the count morning at Finca Luna Nueva.
CostaRica is more than cloud forest with mega worthy quetzals, more than rainforest with fancy Keel-billed Toucans and luscious Green Honeycreepers. They are places where we invest most of our birding time and rightly so; mature tropical forests are where we find the highest number of species. Pied Puffbird.
Even so, in the short term, it can be hard to accept that hundreds of species are close to being extinguished from this irreplaceble tapestry of life, that hundreds more are headed for the same eventual abysmal stop. We would see how species that used to be common, even abundant, became remnants of their former, robust populations.
Irazu is the name of a volcano in CostaRica. but it’s not common in CostaRica. Stop at any bit of forest en route and you might see species like Flame-throated Warbler, Yellow-winged Vireo, Ruddy Treerunner , and other birds that only live in the high elevations of CostaRica and western Panama.
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