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Few places boast so many different bird species in such a small area — over 900 species (more than Europe, or all of the United States and Canada combined), including 75 different families, like 51 species of hummingbirds, 48 warblers, and 45 tanagers. It was close to 5 a.m.,
Costa Rica enjoys an international reputation as an iconic birding location, bursting with epic Neotropical species and breathtaking natural attractions. Zamora Estate protects acres of unspoiled habitat within one of the fastest growing sections of SanJose, a holding that has sustained four generations of the Zamora family.
I sample birding on Poas more often than at other sites in Costa Rica because it’s close to home and makes for a worthwhile guided day trip from the SanJose area. Recently, while guiding on the slopes of Poas, without too much effort, we had more than a hundred species. This Red-faced Spinetail was one of them.
This is a protected area that includes the Los Cusingos Bird refuge, where we were guided by Andres Chinchilla, a young man who as a child ran around the farm where his family worked, and was to become this incredible bird refuge. His years of experience in this area were quite obvious as we found 62 species in one morning.
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.
However, there are a few stand out sites here and there that are significantly better for species like Jabiru, Lance-tailed Manakin, and Nicaraguan Grackle to name a few. From SanJose, it takes four to four and a half hours but given the excellent birding opps on the way, you might want to allocate a bit more time.
Birds with white on them are much more likely to take the form of goodies like the Snowy Cotinga , or two species of tityras. The Caribbean slope of Costa Rica also differs from the islands in having a lot more bird species. White-crowned Pigeon might be on the list, but that rare prize for Costa Rica is far from regular.
It’s needed if “success” is synonymous with seeing a higher percentage of target birds (even if that just means any possible species), the trip being rather glitch free, and having abundant coffee available at all hours. If the families are the same, that might not be too much of a problem.
Most of all, I love showing people birds, species both common and mysteriously evasive. Whether a birder is eager for eyefulls of common species or needs to test the birding Zen and. Although we didn’t start out the birding that way, on the third day, we did find ourselves wondering if we were approaching 300 species.
One of the advantages of Morelia as a birding/tourist destination is that we receive direct flights from Houston on United, Dallas/Fort Worth on American, and Los Angeles, Oakland, SanJose (California), and Chicago/Midway on the Mexican carrier Volaris. And go ahead, bring the family. Take that, Filtros!) Come bird Morelia.
I must have keep 400 images in the file of just this one species. I caught this Lark Sparrow at San Blas, near Magdalena Bay , just as the sun was setting. There is a small Federal Reserve, set aside on the white sandy beach near SanJose Del Cabo, in order to protect the nesting Least Terns.
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