web analytics
Categories
bird finding in Costa Rica Birding Costa Rica birds to watch for in Costa Rica

How to See a Quetzal, Wrenthrush, and 12 Hummingbird Species on a Birding Day Trip in Costa Rica

Image

Birding in Costa Rica can be easy going, common birds in a hotel garden, hiking rainforest trails, taking a boat trip, visiting private reserves, and much more. There’s lots of options, when it comes down to it, how you want to experience birds is up to you.

However, with that in mind, to see some antbirds and other shy, rainforest species, you might need to take that rainforest hike. To see Three-wattled Bellbird and other local species, you’ll have to know just where to go at the right time of year. Knowing how to look for unfamiliar tropical birds also helps and, if you aren’t sure how to identify them, there’s nothing that compares with an experienced guide.

We also have a set of birds that most birders would sort of love to see more than other species. That’s not to say we should ignore or show less appreciation for birds like the Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Great Kiskadee, or Blue-gray Tanager.

Image

Not by any means. All birds are good birds; they help us reconnect, reenergize, and appreciate our natural world. There’s just some bird species you might want to see more than others, some birds that only live in or nearly within Costa Rica. There’s also a bird or two that look so incredible, it’s simply hard to believe they exist.

Resplendent Quetzal in Costa Rica

Image

One of those ultimate unreal birds is the Resplendent Quetzal and yes, although I’ve seen them hundreds of times over decades of birding in Costa Rica, every single sighting is wondrous. Honestly, the sacred bird of the Mayans really is one of those species that must be seen to be believed.

I see one and still wonder how to describe that shade of green/gold/bluish. I see the red underparts and still imagine that the feathers should feel like plush velvet. I mean, they do look that way. A male’s feathers trail and quiver behind it in flight and it still blows my mind away.

It’s no wonder more than one birder I have guided has been moved to tears upon seeing one. I have seen the same emotional reaction at a major macaw clay lick in Peru and with good reason. Both experiences are natural world circuit overload in the best way; sights, sounds, and colors that surpass your wildest birding dreams.

It would seem that there’s an unwritten rule that such an incredibly surreal species as the Resplendent Quetzal should also be rare and tough to find. I’m pleased to say that nope, that’s not the case, especially not in Costa Rica. Although quetzals aren’t flying around like grackles or exactly simple to see, they aren’t all that rare either. The quetzal situation in Costa Rica is similar to so many other birds in so many other parts of the world.

Watch for them in the right habitat, know how to look for them, and you’ll probably find them. Yes, it might take some time but they are out there, feeding on wild “avocados” in cloud forest.

Wrenthrush

Image
Wrenthrush.

The Wrenthrush is another one of those must see birds. Nope, it doesn’t have an iridescent coat, it’s not big, and its song is as high pitched and wiry sounding as they get. But, it’s one heck of a unique bird and that’s why I hope every birder sees one.

Wren? No. Thrush? No again. Wrenthrush? Yes!

What used to be an aberrant wood-warbler is so different, ornithologists figured the Wrenthrush deserved its very own family. Like the quetzal, happily, it’s not very rare either! I wouldn’t call the Wrenthrush very common and it may have declined in some areas but I still hear and see them quite often. Even better, they live in the same places as quetzals.

Like some wrens, Grasshopper Warblers, and other species with a strong aversion to open spaces, Wrenthrushes happily skulk in dense, wet vegetation. The good thing is that you can see them, at least if you know what they sound like and how to look for them.

Hummingbirds

There’s lots of hummingbirds in Costa Rica and who doesn’t want to see them all? I still enjoy seeing Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds in my urban neighborhood, even as ultra common as they are. Recently, we have also been seeing a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird wintering here and then there are other species, lots of other hummingbirds further afield.

Image

It’s not much further afield either; I’m talking within an hour and a half drive from the San Jose area. There are four or five hummingbird species in the high elevations, 7 more or so in middle elevations, and a couple others here and there’ more than enough to see a dozen species in a day, probably more.

An Easy and Productive Birding Day Trip from the San Jose Area

There are mountains visible from the airport, also from my neighborhood and they are topped with cloud forest; Poas and Barva Volcanoes. Just on the other side, the weather and forest is wetter and the forests host another suite of species.

From the San Jose area (especially from Alajuela and near the airport), it only takes 45 minutes to an hour to drive up there on good roads. No hiking needed, only a vehicle that will get you up there, help you enter the realms of quetzals, Wrenthrushes, Fiery-throated Hummingbirds and lots more. Bird your way down to and below Cinchona and you’ll see more hummingbirds, probably find more than a dozen species.

I spend a morning birding this route and I routinely see quetzal, Wrenthrush, and several hummingbirds along with 70 more. Spend the whole day and 100 plus species is par for the course. You can’t go wrong with a day trip to the Poas-Cinchona area when birding Costa Rica. To learn more about doing this easy and exciting day trip, send me an email today. In the meantime, here are some FAQs about the Resplendent Quetzal in Costa Rica:

FAQs about Quetzals in Costa Rica

Is there a quetzal season in Costa Rica?

No, technically, there is no quetzal season in Costa Rica. Although various sources mention a “quetzal season”, they are referring to the quetzal nesting season that usually takes place from February to March. Yes, it is easy to wait at a quetzal nest but, in addition to needing to be careful to not disturb the birds, it’s not necessary.

Quetzals live and feed in Costa Rican cloud forests all year long.

Do Quetzals migrate in Costa Rica?

Quetzals do not migrate in Costa Rica, at least not outside the country. However, after nesting, they often move around in search of fruiting trees and some can migrate to lower elevations. The lowest I have seen quetzals is 500 meters, always females.

Do you need a guide to see a Resplendent Quetzal in Costa Rica?

No, you do not need a guide to see a Resplendent Quetzal in Costa Rica. However, as with many bird species, you’ll have a much better chance seeing one if you hire an experienced guide who knows how to find them.

Are quetzals rare in Costa Rica?

No, quetzals are not rare in Costa Rica. They are uncommon but regular species of cloud forest habitats from 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) to more than 3,000 meters (9,000 to 10,000 feet).

Categories
bird finding in Costa Rica Birding Costa Rica caribbean slope

Tis The Season for Umbrellabirds at Centro Manu

Image

The holiday season has been unleashed and Costa Rica is no exception. Arrays of blinking and flashing Christmas lights, inflatable Santas and reindeers, candy cane and nutcracker themed decor…my neighborhood’s got it all. Christmas carol tracks are also on replay in supermarkets hawking everything from pseudo fruitcakes to panettones imported from Verona.

Growing up in Niagara, I don’t recall panetonnes (a fun, sort of brioche-like bread with mini chocolate chunks and candied fruit), but we did exchange tins of Christmas cookies. Those home-made treasure boxes featured a fine assortment of sugar-butter creations, even cucidati, Italian wedding cookies, mini brownies, pizzelle, you know, the good stuff!

In Costa Rica, people exchange tamales. They belong to a heftier food category than a flat, lightweight pizzelle but the kind, gift giving feelings are the same. Tamales aren’t bad either; if you’re in Costa Rica in December, make sure you try one accompanied by a fine cup of locally grown and roasted coffee.

Something else to enjoy in Costa Rica these days are umbrellabirds. Tis the season for these rare crow-like cotingas, especially at Centro Manu. After breeding in remote cloud forests, Bare-necked Umbrellabirds move to lower elevations, sort of “wintering” there until they head back uphill in February and March.

Costa Rica birding
Umbrellabird breeding habitat.

Alas, umbrellabirds can’t spend post breeding season in any old place. These special birds need mature rainforests that provide them with plenty of their preferred tamales and cucidati; local tropical fruit, small lizards, and a fine assortment of big bugs. Sadly, unlike toucans, they won’t go for bananas and would rarely if ever visit a fruit feeder. Nor will they hang out in second growth or forest edge; those places just don’t have the stuff that umbrellabirds need.

Based on their extra large eyes, I also wonder if they might be better adapted to the dim conditions of the forest interior, and thus avoid brightly lit areas. Given their penchant to forage in the upper understory of wonderfully shaded forest made even dimmer by frequent cloudy conditions, I would not be surprised.

That’s what yesterday’s umbrellabird at Centro Manu was up to. The subadult male would perch on a branch about 12 feet above the ground and peer this way and that, looking around until it swooped to snatch some bug, or move to another branch. On occasion, the mega bird also swooped to snatch a small “wild avocado” fruit in flight, gulping it down after regaining a perch. I’m not kidding about the swooping either, this species flies a bit like a woodpecker.

Yep, all of that show and right in front of us, for extended photo sessions, and walkaway views. That’s what’s going on at Centro Manu right now, you might want to visit! However, I’d be lying if I said it was simple as pie. It probably won’t be. We had to walk to the back part of the trail and still get lucky to cross paths with the bird. That trail is also famously muddy and has some slippery roots and rocks, and the forest is pretty humid and features a healthy population of mosquitos.

Even so, as long as you can walk fairly well and have repellent, you’ll be alright. You’ll still need some luck to run into an umbrellabird (that endangered status ain’t for nothing) but, you also have a fair chance at Centro Manu, especially right now. Heck, their guide Kenneth has also recently seen one in the early morning right above the office!

Image
A different Bare-necked Umbrellabird from Manu last winter.

I don’t know how many umbrellabirds are hanging out at Centro Manu but I bet there’s more than one. When you aren’t looking for this serious mega, there’s also lots of other stuff to search for too. We also saw White-crowned Manakin, Black-crowned Antshrike, Spotted Antbird, the roosting Great Potoo, and Rufous-winged Tanager among other 90 plus bird species. You might also want to check out the fruiting figs near the hummingbird garden, they’re bound to attract some uncommon birds, maybe even a Lovely Cotinga or Red-fronted Parrotlet? Those would be a couple of additional mega birds indeed but, since they also partake in the Costa Rican altitudinal shuffle, it’s not out of the question.

Want a guided trip for umbrellabirds and other species at Centro Manu? Let me know! I hope to see you here!

Learn how to look for this bird and find information for dozens of other birding sites in Costa Rica in my Costa Rica bird finding ebook (buying it also supports this blog).

Categories
bird finding in Costa Rica Birding Costa Rica

November-December Costa Rica Birding News

Image

It’s getting cold out there! Not so much in Costa Rica even if some local folks beg to differ. It’s the end of November, creeping into early December and I recall times of preliminary cold, days of playing football with friends in brisk, pre-winter weather, watching the flakes come down accompanied by Thanksgiving parades and football on the TV and slow roasted turkey in the oven.

Outside, on the nature side of the coin, these “winter is coming days” meant chickadee and sharp Downy Woodpecker calls in the hibernating woods, crow caws and Blue Jay jeers in the neighborhood, and gulls. Storms of gulls thriving on the rushing waters of the deep Niagara River.

You watch gull flocks on the Niagara and you might feel mesmerized. Dress for the weather or you’ll feel frozen and numb too but there’ll be more than enough gulls to ponder. At least that’s how it was in the hairspray 80s and flannel 90s. Thousands of gulls to watch; a blizzard of Bonaparte’s and flurries of Ring-billeds and Herrings with a scattering of “white-winged gulls”, hulking Great Black-backs and fair chances at other, less common species.

Gulls and ducks and maybe the first Snowy Owl of the year and others birds in Niagara but no Blue-gray Tanagers, no Clay-coloreds mewling, kiskadees shrieking, nor Gray Hawks whistling. Those are some of the birds I hear in my Costa Rican neighborhood in late November, December too and although northern winds can bring cool conditions, the air is more “fresh” than “freezing finger stealing cold”.

As always, it’s pretty warm in Costa Rica, and the birding is great! Although high season starts sometime next month or January, by the number of birding tours happening, I think several companies and birders have realized that November’s a great time to be birding in Costa Rica too. Here’s a bit of birding news to whet your avian loving appetite.

Aplomado Falcon- still around, not always accessible

Earlier this month (or maybe in October), a sweet Aplomado Falcon was found at a site south of Jaco. Although we get a few of these smart looking raptors every year, they tend to be one day wonders. I bet most of those few birds just wander around until they find some open fields to their liking, ones that are mostly inaccessible.

This bird, on the other hand, decided to set up hunting house in a fairly accessible spot. It’s been hanging out in open fields on the road that extends past a housing/horse farm development called, “Mistico”. A lot of local birders have seen the falcon but, the bird’s not always visible, seems to be largely absent for much of the day, and may spend much of its time on private property beyond the viewing horizon.

If you want to try for it anyways, your best chances are visiting the site in the early morning or late afternoon. Various local birders have had more success by venturing beyond a locked gate but I can’t recommend that. This eBird spot marks the site, the falcon seems to mostly hang out in the open fields past the metal gates.

Even if you don’t see it, you’ll still see lots of other cool birds. On a recent visit, we had Laughing Falcon, a pair of Pearl Kites, and Red-breasted Meadowlark among other species.

Image
Pearl Kites are uncommon, shrikeish, mini raptors.

Sandhill Crane- might still be around, might be gone

Image

Today marks a bit more than a week since the first day of Costa Rica’s first documented Sandhill Crane. Has this species visited in the past? Did people from local cultures encounter them at some point over the past several thousand years? Since Costa Rica was heavily forested and cranes prefer open areas, I bet any encounters would have been pretty darn infrequent.

At the same time, since we’re talking a time frame of thousands of years and cultures absolutely connected with their natural surroundings, it seems that some people probably did encounter lost Sandhill Cranes. They may have eaten them or, at least tried to catch them. In any case, since we don’t have any evidence of that happening, we can at least document this sighting as the first definite record for the country.

Maryllen and I went to see the bird on Friday and I’m sure glad we did! It hasn’t been seen in the same farm field since and could very well have left Costa Rica for good. I hope it gets refound but I wouldn’t be surprised if it migrated or succumbed to unfamiliar conditions. While we watched it, I saw it shed various feathers (perhaps a sign of not doing so well?) and it was vocalizing quite a bit. The crane seemed restless, being such a social, dancing bird, I bet it felt lonely. It will be interesting to see if it turns up in another area.

Watch for other vagrant birds

Image
Even if you don’t find us a Clay-colored Sparrow, you might see a Gartered Trogon on a roadside wire.

A Sandhill Crane came to Costa Rica, what else is out there? Will we get our first Gadwall? Maybe a White-throated Sparrow, Short-eared Owl, or other local megas? Only one way to find out, please document any odd birds you happen to come across.

Hopefully, there’ll be enough local birding going on to find the rare, lost ones. I suppose they could be anywhere but places I’m eager to check include coastal sites, wetlands, and lakes for shorebirds and other aquatic species, open wet fields, and even open paramo sites for pipits or other super rare stuff.

Dry Season Ends (supposedly)

According to the weather forecasting people, November 18th marked the end of the wet season. Although it sprinkled a but today, it seems that they were right. Lately, we have had typical dry season weather of sunny days and breezy conditions. That might be nice weather but it’s actually not so nice for birding.

No worries because there will still be lots of birds to see in the morning and especially in other parts of the country that aren’t so dry. That’s right, as expected, we can expect rain in the mountains, on the Caribbean slope, and still get afternoon rains from Tarcoles to Panama.

Road conditions and driving

Now that the rainy season has mostly dried up, we can see where pot holes have formed. So far, it hasn’t been too bad but then again, I haven’t driven in the areas that saw the heaviest rains. However, I can say that the Bijagual road next to Carara has been more or less fixed, and that the Cerro Lodge road is a bit rutted and rough but still passable by two wheel drive vehicles.

The road from San Ramon to Puntarenas has also been fixed and roadwork is also happening on the road to the Boca Tapada area. Work is still happening on the Tarcoles bridge but it’s not too bad (although could be bad on weekends).

As far as driving goes, when we drove from Jaco to the Central Valley on Friday, I was reminded that you really have to be careful about picking your driving times. For example, when coming back from the Pacific, I will never, ever drive back between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. You have to leave before 2 (and better before noon) or, wait until at least 6 at night. Heck it’s probably worth staying there to look for night birds and then driving back around 7:30 or 8. If not, you will probably spend hours in a barely moving parking lot traffic situation.

As for driving to the Pacific lowlands, you should really leave before 5 a.m.

Lots of great birding in beautiful places

Image

As per usual, there’s lots of great birding in beautiful places. In Costa Rica, that’s par for the course; come here for birding and you can’t go wrong! Tanagers in foothill rainforests, macaws in the lowlands, toucan species in most places, there’s always a lot to see at the numerous birding sites in Costa Rica. I can’t wait to get back out birding soon, I hope you go birding soon too.

Categories
bird finding in Costa Rica birds to watch for in Costa Rica Costa Rica birding tour planning birding trip Costa Rica south pacific slope

Southern Pacific Costa Rica Birding Tour- Top 10 Birds

Image

The bird list for Costa Rica is quickly approaching 950 species. Imagine that number of birds in Wales. How about West Virginia? Yeah, that many species on a bird list for such a small area!

How does Costa Rica do it? What’s going on to turn up so many bird species?

Image
Including birds like the Scarlet Macaw.

Costa Rica owes its high biodiversity to several factors but the most important could be the conjunction of several major ecosystems and bioregions. With dry forest meeting rainforest and mountains creating their own unique habitats, the country is like a crossroads for tropical life. If we take the junction south from the Tarcoles River, we enter one of the country’s most important endemic areas; the Chiriqui region or “Southern Pacific zone”.

This bioregion extends a bit into western Panama but is still fairly small. Heck, if you could drive from the Tarcoles and cross straight into western Panama, you’d essentially traverse it in 5 to 6 hours. That’s all and yet, the place is chock full of endemic flora, bugs, reptiles, amphibians, and, for the birding set, several much desired bird species.

Throw in some mountain birding and localized natural savannah in the General Valley and we come up with a fantastic array of birds. Of those birds, some are more challenging than others, and some are must-see species. Although it’s not easy to pick a top ten from the sumptuous list of birding possibilities, I’ll settle on the following.

Turquoise Cotinga

birding Costa Rica

Whoah, that’s a good one! Nothing like an endemic shining blue and purple bird to whet the birding appetite. The only unfortunate thing is that it’s not common. No, you probably won’t see one driving along but, if you go to the right places, you can lay eyes on this stunning bird.

The best spots tend to be around San Isidro del General, sites near San Vito, and on the Osa Peninsula.

Yellow-billed Cotinga

Image

Sharing the rainforest with the Turquoise Cotinga is this other cotingid star. Since it requires mangroves adjacent to rainforest, it’s even less common and likely endangered. However, once again, if you know where to go, you can see them.

Thanks to their rarity, bright shining white plumage, and almost cartoonish peace-doveish shape, seeing Yellow-billed Cotingas in the feathered flesh is nothing short of surreal.

Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager

birding Costa Rica

Haunting some of the same areas as the two cotinga species, this bird would probably win the prize for being the most localized species in Costa Rica. For unknown reasons, they are essentially endemic to the Osa Peninsula and adjacent rainforests in the Golfo Dulce region.

Even there, they aren’t common! To check out the salmon highlights on this local mega, you’ll have to watch for them in rainforest in ravines and next to streams.

Mangrove Hummingbird

Image
This Mangrove Hummingbird is actually from Mata de Limon.

This country endemic also lives in the northern Pacific zone of Costa Rica but it’s such an important bird, I include it on this list. There are several sites in southern Costa Rica where it occurs, mangroves being the key.

Rosy Thrush-Tanager

What a bird this one is! Now that it has its own family and, could maybe be eventually split into a few species, seeing one in Costa Rica would be a pretty cool trick.

On account of its serious skulking ability and local distribution, it gets easily missed by visiting birders. However, once again, if you know where to go and how to see it, you have a fair chance of watching this dreamy bird.

Ocellated Crake

Image
Ocellated Crake taken by Pirjo Laakso from the Costa Rica Birds Field Guide app.

Whoah! Another dream bird and yet, also now feasible! Like the thrush-tanager, good local guides have worked out actually seeing and often getting good pictures of this grass crake!

It is very local in Costa Rica but fairly common in the right habitat.

White-crested Coquette

Image

A bunch of hummingbirds live in Costa Rica’s southern rainforest habitats. This sprite is the most exquisite of them all. Notorious for escaping detection, White-crested Coquettes tend to wander in search of their choice flowering trees and bushes.

Check those food sources long enough and we can usually find them.

Baird’s Trogon

Baird's Trogon
Baird’s Trogon

The Southern Pacific Zone sure has some beautiful birds and this trogon takes the cake! It’s fairly common in rainforest, especially in and near the Osa Peninsula.

Golden-naped Woodpecker

Image

Yet another beauty is this fancy woodpecker. When I happily see this bird, I am often reminded of the American Three-toed Woodpecker, just one that’s dressed for a tropical parade.

Thankfully, this beauty is also fairly common in rainforest habitats and can even come to feeders!

Orange-collared Manakin

Image

Yet another fairly common South Pacific endemic, this manakin is gorgeous. Go birding in and near forest edge and second growth and you’ll hear displaying males snap their wings. Take a closer look and you even see them display in the undergrowth!

These are my top ten for a Southern Pacific tour but really, there’s so many fantastic birds to watch, I could add several more birds. If we blend a birding tour with this region and cloud forest, we’re talking a serious bunch of fantastic birds. Speaking of fantastic birds, in keeping with my constant wish of connecting people with as many fantastic birds as possible, I designed a tour to see all the species mentioned above along with some other birds like these:

Black-bellied Hummingbird

Image

White-bellied Mountain-Gem

Image

Violet Sabrewing

Image

Speckled Tanager and so on and etc.

Image

That tour is the Hillstar Costa Rica: Pacific Specials tour. Running from March 29th to April 9th, this birding trip will turn up a fantastic array of birds often missed on other tours to Costa Rica. Although we never really know which birds will show on a tour, I would expect a wealth of uncommon species on this one! I designed it with that goal in mind, it’s gonna be good.

Would you like to see the species mentioned above and lots more in Costa Rica? And on a fun trip led by Josh Covill? Contact me at information@birdingcraft.com or, at info@hillstarnature.com today. There’s still a couple open spots left!

Categories
bird finding in Costa Rica Birding Costa Rica

A New and Unexpected Bird for Costa Rica

How many birds can you see in Costa Rica? A couple hundred? Yes and a lot more. As with birding anywhere, your final Costa Rica tally depends on where you go birding, how often you go birding, the number of birding days, and how you carry out the avian observing endeavor (like, if you just hang in a hotel garden or spend hours on forest trails to track down quail-doves and glimpse RVG cuckoos).

Image

Ten days can easily reach 300 species, two weeks can turn up 400 plus, and more than 600 in a year is pretty normal. That’s a healthy bunch of birds and yet, Costa Rica’s got more! The current official bird list for Costa Rica stands at 942 (947 if we count additional, yet to be accepted species) and now, as of November 15th, we’ve got one more bird to add.

That most recent addition is a bird I saw yesterday on a Tarcoles River boat trip. No long slog in a remote area, no border birding in search of overshoots from Panama or Nicaragua, just a regular, enriching and easy going boat ride on the Tarcoles.

Before boarding the boat with Jose’s Crocodile Tours, I did realize we could see something weird or out of range or odd. Such birding fortune is always possible at that particular spot but, rarities are never the norm. It’s worth being aware of possibilities but you can’t have any expectations. Better to just open the mind to birding, watch, listen, and go with the birding flow.

Yesterday, that strategy seems to have worked. It’s also a reminder to check every bird and, if you don’t recognize it right away, take a closer look.

It was a quiet morning on the river, high brown water typical of a wet season river that drains the stormy and densely populated Central Valley. Being the low season, we were also the only boats on the river, the others moored and waiting for crocodile viewing sometime December.

Our boat driver Isaac motored upstream and Barbara Seith and I enjoyed the easy-going and productive birding. Great Egrets waded and waited for hand outs that we failed to provide. The occasional Bare-throated Tiger-heron stalked the river edge along with other wading regulars.

Yellow-crowned Night-Herons perched on driftwood, Mangrove Swallows fluttered alongside the boat, and we scanned for more birds; Tropical Kingbirds and Great Kiskadees perched on tall riverside grass, a quick and distant flyby of an Amazon Kingfisher, and a Peregrine flapping into view, lazily checking out its killing domain.

Upriver we continued, seeing thick-knees, spoonbills, and other regulars but not much else. It was still good, ultimately better to be boating a tropical river and looking for birds as opposed to say driving or walking on nearly birdless busy streets.

Image

On that upriver journey, I noticed a tall grayish bird and as I did with most birds, automatically raised my binos to my eyes. After nearly half a century of focusing on birds, that movement has become a reflex, a gesture as quick and normal as smiling when the rain stops and the sun makes its welcome appearance.

As I moved the focus wheel and the bird came into view, my expected “just another Great Blue Heron” morphed into a not Great Blue Heron. Time seemed to slow as I realized I was looking at a more uniformly colored bird and one with a reddish or rusty front. But no, it couldn’t be…um…that just didn’t make sense and yet, there I was, undoubtedly looking at a Sandhill Crane.

Image

Costa Rica’s first Sandhill Crane. And it was standing there right in front of us like that was completely normal. Except that’s not! At least not in Costa Rica!

I asked Barbara to please take photos of this country first, told the boat driver likewise and then we worked on getting the word out. Thankfully, we had a good signal and, in real time, sent messages to forums and friends that we were looking at a Sandhill Crane, that this was no joke, and tried to relay the exact location.

Although the bird was a clear Sandhill Crane, it was still sort of unbelievable. I mean, I had other species on my radar as birds that could and should show up but Sandhill Crane really wasn’t one of them. In retrospect, I guess it should have been, after all, the bird is a long distance migrant and has a large population but, they don’t usually fly further than central Mexico.

I figured some pelagic species or maybe a Bar-tailed Godwit or Tibetan or Siberian Sand-Plover or Altamira Oriole and other possible species I included on the Costa Rica Birds Field Guide app but Sandhill Crane? Well, I guess I need to add that one too!

A country first is nothing to scoff at but, with other life birds to look for, we got back on our birding mission and boated on the rest of the river. Nope, no other new birds for Costa Rica but it was still good.

As for my fellow local birders, they got the word and several made their way to Tarcoles as quick as they could. Jose set up boat trips for a big discount and they went looking for the crane. Unfortunately, it was not in the same spot and, for much of the day, I feared it had left and would turn into a major dip (chasing and missing a bird). Although some did miss it, those who arrived later or stuck around until 4 p.m. did manage to refind and see the star bird.

Today, the day after, more birders went looking for the crane and some did see it in flight. No close looks but at least they saw it and, so far, it seems to still be hanging around. Hopefully, it will stick around a lot longer; staying for a few more months would be nice!

Thanks to Barbara Seith for taking the picture shown above and more documentation of this country first. See more at our ebird checklist from that eventful boat ride and more of her photos and artwork at her site.

Categories
bird finding in Costa Rica Birding Costa Rica planning birding trip Costa Rica planning for a birding trip to Costa Rica

The Most Biodiverse Areas for Birds in Costa Rica

Image

Planning a birding trip to Costa Rica? You might be wondering which are the most biodiverse areas for birds. It’s a fairly common question and a good one. After all, what birder wants to go to the least biodiverse areas for birds? That high avian diversity is one of the main reasons birders visit Costa Rica, some other reasons being “quetzal”, “Wrenthrush”, “umbrellabird”, and “Snowcap”.

Image

In general, the more birds the better and, in that, Costa Rica fits the bill. No, we aren’t the most avian diverse nation on the planet but, we do have a heck of a lot of birds per square kilometer (or mile or league). With most also being quite accessible, it’s no wonder Costa Rica is a top destination for birding tourism. So, which areas have the most bird species? Which areas outperform for avian diversity?

In a sense, I could just say “the entire country”. From the Central Valley, Costa Rica is small enough for me to drive an hour or two in a few different directions and reach vastly different avifaunas. Seriously, as I write, there are over 700 bird species within a radius of 50 miles. It’s true! In a show of obsession for accuracy or curiosity or getting carried away with playing with Google Earth, I measured a 50 mile line stretching from my home in San Francisco de Heredia and made a circle.

I discovered that I am still amazed by the short distances created by a straight line in Costa Rica and, that my 50 mile birding radius encompasses everything from dry forest habitats to Monteverde, Carara, Caribbean lowlands, foothill forest as far as Turrialba, part of the General Valley, and the near continental shelf edge offshore from Quepos. In other words, I’m, smack in the middle of a heck of a lot of bird species. Within this Google Earth area, I counted 598 resident bird species and 160 migrants. Since I left out non-annual vagrants including the Aplomado Falcon currently hunting south of Jaco, there’s probably a few more.

Yes, definitely 700 plus bird species within 50 miles so how come I haven’t recorded that many this year? That stems from a fair percentage of those birds being rare or hard to detect, and me not having visited certain areas long enough this year to see them (such as the open ocean and a few other choice spots).

With all those birds in mind within such a short distance, we could say that the most biodiverse area for birds in Costa Rica is Costa Rica itself but, since we can’t travel “as the crow flies”, we’re better off talking about much smaller areas. These are the ones that come to mind.

The Carara Zone

streak-chested-antpitta

The Carara area is arguably the most avian diverse area in Costa Rica. It’s got a trick up its sleeve but, there’s no other site of similar area in Costa Rica (or Middle or Central America) that harbors as many bird species.

The crazy bird numbers don’t come from the national park although the mature, protected forests do play a vital role. They stem from Carara being a massive ecotone that blends dry forest with rainforest, mangroves, second growth, and wetlands. Yep, all those habitats all very close to each other. The end result is massive bird diversity (along with other stuff).

Monteverde

Image
Male Three-wattled Bellbird.

This famous and heavily visited area is also a major hotspot. Sort of like Carara, all those birds living there are explained by sizeable areas of mature, protected cloud forest, some slightly lower elevation forest on the Caribbean slope, and dry forest habitats on the Pacific side.

In other words, Monteverde is also an ecotone of sorts, one with hundreds of bird species. In the past, when we did Christmas Counts there, I think we routinely turned up more than 400 species.

Poas Route 126

While the high elevations on Poas Volcano don’t host as many species as other areas in Costa Rica, when we also consider a surrounding area that includes dry/moist habitat birds in the Central Valley and middle elevation and foothill habitats on the adjacent Caribbean slope, we’re talking a lot of bird species.

Image

This general area also having some of the most accessible birding to the Central Valley also earns points.

Bijagua

Image

The Bijagua/Volcano Tenorio area also racks up the bird species. Like Monteverde and Carara, it likewise acts as an ecotone where dry habitats meet mature, wet foothill rainforest. Throw in some small wetlands and a trail or two that reaches cloud forest and we have a huge number of bird species. There might be around 400 possible.

Sites with Foothill and Lowland Forest

The other main sites in Costa Rica with major bird diversity are any place that combines foothill rainforest with lowland rainforest and/or cloud forest. Foothill and lowland forest on their own are always high diversity. Combine the two and you’ll have more than enough birds to look for even during a week of birding.

Emerald Tanager

Sites that come to mind are Rancho Naturalista, Hotel Quelitales, Reserva Las Brisas, parts of the Osa, Esquipulas, the remote Pitilla Biological Station, the Arenal area, and the San Vito area.

Wait, but what about Las Selva or Tortuguero or the Osa and the La Gamba area? Yes, those areas have lots of birds too, are fantastic, and you’d be birding wise to visit them. However, when talking about similar-sized areas that have ecotones, those sites seem to have more species. No matter what, as long as you bird in good habitat when birding Costa Rica, you can’t go wrong!

To learn more about birding at the sites mentioned above and many others, support this blog by purchasing my 900 plus page ebook “How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica”. I hope to watch birds with you here in Costa Rica!

Categories
bird finding in Costa Rica Birding Costa Rica caribbean slope

A Good Time for Birding the Southern Caribbean in Costa Rica

Image

October isn’t the most popular month for visiting Costa Rica but, as far as us local birders are concerned, pumpkin season is the best month for birding. Yes, we are deep in the heart of the wet season and yes, it rains a heck of a lot (especially this year) but, you know where the sun still shines?

Try the southern Caribbean zone. That would be the area from Limon southeast to Sixaola. I’m talking places like Cahuita, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, and Manzanillo-Gandoca (and Tortuguero ain’t that shabby either!). It only takes a quick eBird check to see that several local birders have been in that area as of late, with luck, we’ll pay a visit soon too.

I want to go to catch the tail end of migration, to see the final movements of swallows and Peregrines and raptor movements. With that hurricane churning in the northern Caribbean basin, I’m also hoping it might send a weird bird or two our way, both on sea and on land.

I’ve also noticed a few more international tours to that area happening in October. I think more agencies have realized just how good it can be, how exciting the birding is when you mix a major migration corridor with a plethora of resident rainforest birds.

Here’s some specifics why, the things that keep me coming back and wishing I had a migration vacation house down that way:

Migration is fantastic

Image

I didn’t mention major migration corridor for kicks. The Caribbean coast of Costa Rica really is migration central, especially in the southern part where a low coastal mountain approaches the sea. As happens in such geographic situations, birds tend to get funneled between the hills and the water. Stand in that funnel and you’re likely to witness an aerial avian stream, sometimes for hours.

The Hirundines, Chimney Swifts, and Eastern Kingbirds move through in the thousands, occasional birds getting caught by fair numbers of Merlins and Peregrines. Keep watching and you might catch a Black Swift or two in the bunch, maybe some Common Nighthawks flying way up there too.

Check any and all vegetation and you’ll see the less aerial birds on their way to South America. There’s Scarlet Tanagers, Bay-breasted Warblers, wood-pewees, Dickcissels, and other birds moving through.

Chances at something rare, maybe something new

As with any migration hotspot, a birder also always has a chance at the rare ones, the needles in the foliage haystack. Some, like rare swallows, could easily pass overhead unnoticed among the thousands of similar species (I bet it happens with one or more Sinaloa Martins). Others are waiting to be found in an abundance of rainforest vegetation, naturally hiding way up there in the canopy or in too many areas to check.

How many Connecticut Warblers skulk through? Even if a dozen were in the area, they’d still get missed. What about Swainson’s Warbler? Yeah, that’s a stretch but despite it not being on the official list, one was seen in 2017. There’s gotta be a few more quietly absconding in wet swampy woods that no one birds.

Out on the ocean, other intriguing birds pass by, get the right conditions and pelagics do occasionally show. There’s just not enough people officially watching for long enough to document them.

Then there’s the truly new birds for Costa Rica, the ones likely to be documented at some point. These are birds like Carib Grackle, Cocoi Heron, White-tailed Trogon, and maybe Rufous-breasted Hermit, Blue Cotinga, and Pacific Antwren. All live pretty close, all are possible, and are why I include them on the Costa Rica Birds app as “not seen” birds.

Top notch resident rainforest species

Image

If you don’t find a new bird for Costa Rica, you’ll still see lots of the regular ones. One of the great things about birding this region is the degree of accessible mature forest habitat, even around many hotels.

Birds like toucans, parrots, puffbirds, Great Potoo, Black-crowned Antshrike, and Purple-throated Fruitcrows are all fairly common. There’s also plenty of woodcreepers, flycatchers, and other expected lowland species, even chances at Agami Heron, kingfishers, and other waterbirds along forested creeks.

Raptors can be good too and include Common Black-Hawk, hawk-eagles, Bat Falcon, Gray-headed Kite, and other species. Although it would be lottery rare, who knows if a Harpy or Crested Eagle might also wander in from populations in Panama or the lower slopes of the Talamancas? That would be very lucky but forest connections indicate that it is possible.

Other rare or uncommon birds to look for include Black-crowned Antpitta, Snowy Cotinga, Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon, Ocellated Antbird, and Sulphur-rumped Tanagers among others.

Underbirded

The area gets a lot of visitors but, it’s not exactly on the main birding tour route. That leaves much of the southern Caribbean underbirded even with several local guides and birders living there. There’s just not enough birders to adequately cover the amount of habitat.

That underbirded label means that there’s more places to explore and that you shouldn’t be too surprised to find some birds absent from eBird hotspots. As always, birds are where the habitat is and there’s a lot of it south of Limon. To learn more about where to go birding in this area, check out my Costa Rica birdfinding ebook.

Great food, lots of accommodation options, and some nice beaches too

Having come into its own as a tourist destination some years ago, this part of Costa Rica also boasts a number of choices for accommodation. Many are small hotels and house rentals but you’ll also find some cheaper and larger more expensive options too.

There’s lots of good restaurants too, some pricey, others more affordable but at least you have lots to choose from. Oh and there’s some nice beaches too although I tend to do more seawatching from them than venturing into the water. Just a note that if you do enter the water, not all beaches are good places to swim and you have to be be extremely careful of rip tides (tragically, one took the life of Malcom-Jamal Warner earlier this year).

If you are in Costa Rica these days, you might want to consider making your way to the southern Caribbean coast. I’m hoping I do, there’s a lot of birds waiting for me down that way.

Categories
bird finding in Costa Rica caribbean slope planning birding trip Costa Rica preparing for your trip

Raptor Festival at the Refugio Lapa Verde, Costa Rica

Image

Raptor Festival! Who doesn’t love the sound of a festive gathering that celebrates raptorial birds? Such venue are destined to be cool. And it was. We nearly missed the gig but thanks to a casual Facebook check Friday evening, I noticed a quick, short video that mentioned the second annual raptor festival taking place at Refugio Lapa Verde, October 18th.

That sounded fun and it was free but yikes! We were talking the following day and although the LapaVerde Refuge is straight line close, sans flying car, getting there would mean 2 hours driving up and over the Central Cordillera mountain range (a common situation in Costa Rica). That actually isn’t so bad, especially if you like watching birds; the route passes through a few different life zones that hide 100s of bird species.

It’s the getting back part that can be tiresome (and whoah nelly, read on to hear about that challenge) as well as the leaving early enough part to get there in time (if you like to sleep in). However, on Saturday morning, we shrugged off any worries about those potentially challenging parts of the trip and made our way to the festival. Here’s how that day went along with recommendations and other hopefully helpful tidbits.

The height of fall migration in Costa Rica

This is it, third week of October in Costa Rica, the major final push of birds headed here and onward to the rich wintering forests of South America. See them while you can, see if you’ll get lucky with a quick cuckoo sighting or ironic, non-red Scarlet Tanager flocks and kingbird movements.

There’s also the raptors, the thousands of TVs and Swainson’s Hawks and Broad-wings soaring overhead, many of which pass over the hawkwatch at the Refugio Lapa Verde. Those big winged flyers are the main reason for the raptor festival but there’s other birds too, hiding and foraging in the vegetation of the refuge.

Image

Even before we left for our cross mountain drive, I went looking for those migrants. I did my usual brief walk in our neighborhood, one that passes near a rare adjacent farm and narrow riparian zone. The Traill’s Flycatcher sallying down to the cut grass, a few pewees, Dickcissel, my first Bay-breasted Warbler of the year and a few other birds were a reminder of peak migration happening. A quick message from another local birder who had heard tons of Swainson’s Thrushes passing over pre-dawn skies was another reminder as were the birds we saw later that day.

An important, multi-faceted refuge

The Lapa Verde Refuge is privately-owned protected land that encompasses some of the last sizeable remaining areas of Caribbean lowland rainforest in Costa Rica. Just across the road from the Selva Verde forests and northwest of La Selva, the habitat is also loosely connected to other patches of forest that eventually reach the Nicaraguan border.

These connections and location make the refuge an ideal area to help conserve the Great Green Macaw. We need more reforestation for better forest connections outside of the refuge but Ecovida (the organization that owns and manages the refuge) has certainly been doing an excellent job.

Image

Since 2013, through active reforestation and just letting the forest grow back on its own, they have reforested more than 300 hectares. The remaining 1500 hectares protects older rainforest, swamps, and other wetlands. This wealth of habitats is of course ideal for maintaining the complex biodiversity native to northern Costa Rica including important second growth habitats used by warblers and other small migrant birds (the same type of habitat frequently eliminated for pineapple farms).

Great Green Macaws and more

Thanks to the forests in the refuge, Great Green Macaws are regular (we saw several during our visit), and most expected lowland species have been recorded. This includes Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon (rare), Tiny Hawk, Ornate Hawk-Eagle, Snowy Cotinga, puffbirds, motmots, and more.

Although Agami Heron, Rufescent Tiger-Heron and some other birds aren’t on the list, I’m sure they are at least occasionally present too, probably just in less accessible spots.

On our visit, we didn’t see too much but our birding was also limited to sunny mid-day weather and a short tour mostly meant to educate visitors about the refuge. Even so, we still encountered several expected warblers (as well as a beautiful male Prothonotary), other migrants, some migrating kettles, King Vulture, and some other birds.

Raptor celebration

In addition to free tours to learn about the refuge, festival attendants also enjoyed everything from DJ’d music to face painting, story telling, and an honest to goodness magic show. There was a lot going on and it sometimes got loud but I was impressed!

Local kids had also submitted artwork, there were vendors selling arts and crafts, a Vortex optics stand with binos and scopes to sample, snow cones, and other raptor festival foods.

Image
Image

Although we didn’t stay until the finale, the festival ended with a concert and fire juggling! We made up for missing that by watching the fun folks from dance around in identifiable raptor costumes. As was befitting their aggressive nature, the Ornate Hawk-Eagle and Black and white Hawk-Eagle also chased a couple of kite flying kids around.

Image

The Ecovida hawkwatch tower

Image

Part of our tour included a visit to the refuge’s crown jewell; the hawkwatch tower. Situated on a hill, it provided a fantastic view of the surrounding forests and skies. It somewhat reminded me of canopy towers in the Amazon, I’d love to be up there pre and post dawn. It would also be the perfect spot to do a big sit and raise funds for refuge projects.

Image

Although we weren’t at the tower at an ideal time, the counters do see many thousands of raptors during the migration season along with lots of other cool birds.

Visiting the refuge

The raptor festival was an open house, fun, celebratory event but that’s not the norm. It seems like the refuge is mostly there for research and protecting habitat. Although their site does mention ecotourism and they do receive visits, there’s not a lot of information about entrance fees and so on.

If interested in visiting, it would be best to contact them to get the full deal. I’ll also be doing that and including that information in the next update for my Costa Rica bird finding book. I’ve already got a list of other places to update and include, it’s amazing how many new birding sites pop up for well-birded Costa Rica!

What I can say is that if you do visit, you should have a fair chance at a wide variety of lowland birds while watching from their trails and the tower.

The insane drive back

On another note, the drive back wasn’t as easy going as the drive there. Not quite. Driving up and over the mountains in dry weather and daylight is another world compared to doing that at night and in pouring rain.

The problem with night driving there and in much of Costa Rica is the lack of illumination coupled with a concurrent lack of painted roads with reflectors. That’s bad enough in the driest of weather but when you throw in slick roads and constant rain, you’re faced with a potentially life and death situation.

Seriously. It’s hard to see the edge of the road and if you venture off of it, you’re vehicle will likely be rolling down the mountain. Luckily, the rain was too bad on our drive up and, by taking it slow and easy, we made it to the to without too much anxiety. However, from there, as we descended towards Alajuela, the rain got heavier to the point of deluge level craziness with some road flooding (albeit shallow enough to drive through). Add in other drivers, some of whom insist on passing and it’s no wonder we ran into an accident. Not us thank goodness but it did close the road and made us take a detour to get back on track.

The moral of that story is to avoid driving at night in Costa Rica, especially in mountains and during the wet season. Fortunately, you don’t really have to and it’s much easier during the dry season. Happy birding, I hope to see you here!

Categories
Birding Costa Rica

October Global Big Day 2025, Costa Rica

Image
A Wrenthrush risks it all and comes out into the open.

This past weekend was special, especially for birders. Saturday, October 11th was Global Big Day! Yes, we had one in May too but that was Spring migration and, it was on a date that favors birding in the northern temperate zone. To make up for those spring birds that had already flown north and catch major fall migration in other, tropical locales like Costa Rica, eBird has also designated a Global Big Day for October!

Although we love May birding in Costa Rica, October is when we get truly excited about migration. Birds are coming back for the winter, thousands of other birds are passing through, and knowing that rare migrants are possible floats our birding boat. With those tantalizing thoughts in mind, us local birders are eager and pumped for October Global Big day. It might pour down rain but we still go birding, we still celebrate birds and we do it en masse.

Image
It’s easy to want to go birding when you can look for birds like the Keel-billed Motmot.

This year, since I hadn’t heard much hype about October Big Day, I wondered if fewer people would participate. It took but a brief glance at the results to vanquish any worries. More than 950 birders in Costa Rica submitted lists that turned up a collective and impressive 722 species (including the undescribed Puntarenas Screech-Owl).

That’s a heck of a lot of birds, especially for an area the size of Wales or West Virginia. Here’s some of many highlights and observations:

Organized birding outings

It was nice to see that some hotels and groups had organized birding outings for October Global Big Day. I hope some of those outings brought more people into the birding fold, I suspect they did. I know they saw lots of cool birds and were celebrating October birds at the same time as folks in the Philippines, Tanzania, Colombia, and most other corners of the globe. That right there is one of the things I dig most about any Global Big Day; knowing that thousands of other people are celebrating and enjoying birds at the same time.

Uncommon migrants

We didn’t have too many rare migrants but we birders in Costa Rica did find a few. More than one person had the decidedly uncommon Black-billed Cuckoo, a few Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Tree Swallow (yeah, hard to believe but uncommon here!), Veery, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Blue-winged, Yellow-throated, and Townsend’s Warblers.

If migration hadn’t been backed up, we may have also had a few more uncommon migrants.

Some uncommon resident species found, some missed

Local birders found a good number of uncommon resident species including Bare-necked Umbrellabird, Turquoise Cotinga, Violaceous Quail-Dove, Black-banded Woodcreeper, Leaftossers, antpittas, Red-fronted Parrotlet, and Ochraceous Pewee.

Image

Some of the uncommon and rare species “missed” included Silvery-throated Jay, Great Jacamar, Lanceolated Monklet, and Black-crowned Antpitta among a handful of other birds. No big surprise there, none of these species are easy or common in Costa Rica. Look for them the right way and in the right places and you can find them but they aren’t easy.

Guiding in the Poas area

Usually, I do Global Big Day in intense birding style but this year, I was scheduled to guide a couple of visiting birders. That worked out well because even if I hadn’t been scheduled to guide, I would have been doing some easy-going birding anyways. Having had surgery two and a half weeks before then, I wasn’t really ready for intense Big Day birding.

However, I was well enough to guide in the Poas and Varablanca area; a region with excellent, easy-going roadside birding. Cool and wet weather kept some birds quiet but we still managed seeing and hearing quetzals, Barred Parakeets, Fiery-throated and several other species of hummingbirds, Flame-throated Warbler, Wrenthrush, and other cool highland birds.

Image

All 49 regular occurring hummingbirds

Speaking of hummingbirds, local birders found all regular occurring species including migrant Ruby-throated (nice to know they have arrived), Green-fronted Lancebill, White-tipped Sicklebill, coquettes, and various other species.

All rail species minus a coot

Local birders also did very well with the Rallidae, finding everything from Mangrove Rail to Paint-billed and Yellow-breasted Crakes. The only rail species missing was American Coot! Before you laugh, note that this chalk-billed, duckish bird is an uncommon wintering bird in Costa Rica. I guess they haven’t really arrived yet.

The fact that all the other rails were encountered shows how developed birding in Costa Rica has become. It wasn’t all that long ago that Mangrove Rail was unknown for the country and that Yellow-breasted and Paint-billed Crakes were birding dreams. Now, as long as you know where to find birds in Costa Rica and go with the right guide, you can see them fairly easily.

Most raptors and all 14 owls

Image

Raptors are naturally uncommon in Costa Rica but, as October Global Big Day shows, if you get enough birders out there in enough places, birds get seen. All regular species were seen except for the three rare and challenging ones (Black and white Hawk-Eagle, Red-throated Caracara, and Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon), and the two major megas (Crested and Harpy Eagles). As for Gray-bellied Hawk and Solitary Eagle, the hawk is a very rare migrant and the eagle might not even occur. Maybe, but the fact that it hasn’t been documented, even on Global Big Days is telling. Even so, I still believe we need focused expeditions and searches in the right places to properly assess the status of the biggest black-hawk in Costa Rica.

As for the owls, we did very well, only missing the three main vagrant species (Burrowing, Great Horned, and Short-eared, all of which are crazy mega winter vagrants).

Local birders also saw lots of tanagers, trogons, puffbirds, parrots, antbirds, and that wealth of other tropical birds that helps make Costa Rica a major global birding hotspot. It did rain in many places but that didn’t stop us from finding well over 700 species! Imagine how much you could see with two weeks of birding in Costa Rica?

To get an idea of the types of uncommon birds you can see on a carefully designed itinerary, check out this Hillstar Nature Costa Rica birding tour I helped craft for late March and early April, 2026. They still have spaces available! If you are interested in seeing a Rosy Thrush-Tanager, Ocellated Crake, Black-bellied Hummingbird, Scaled Antpitta, Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager, and lots more, contact me today at information@birdingcraft.com .

I hope to see you here, the birds are waiting!

Categories
bird finding in Costa Rica Birding Costa Rica

Costa Rica Birding Expectations for the Final Quarter

birding Costa Rica

Fall is happening, the year’s final fourth. In Costa Rica, look around and you’ll find a scattering of pumpkin spice and occasional Halloween decor but no changing of leaves, cool nights, or cold weather precursors.

We do have hints of winter but they don’t come knocking with frosty fingers, chilled air, and tail-flashing juncos. Instead, we get the boreal summer birds; Baltimore Orioles, Yellow Warblers and waterthrushes dipping tails over puddles and mangrove roots. Go birding in Costa Rica these final quarter days and you’ll see our winter arrivals. You’ll also see the northern nesters sharing space with resident species like Blue-gray Tanagers, motmots, and other neotropical beauties.

Image
A common beauty.

It’s not the high season but the birds are still here, more than enough to watch. Here’s some of what to expect in these latter months of 2025.

Urban birding

Image

Try as you will to get into the real nitty gritty of Costa Rica birding, you’ll probably still find yourself doing some urban birding. I’m talking hotel gardens and patches of habitat in the people zone. It’s alright, there’s always more around than you think, always more to see and always good (especially at hotels like Villa San Ignacio, Robledal, the Bougainvillea, and others that host and cherish green space).

Don’t spend too much time away from the birdier forests but don’t not bird around your hotel either. As encouragement, here’s some of what I’ve been recently seeing and hearing in the tiny bits of habitat (especially a small neighboring farm) near home, in the middle of a city:

-Short-tailed and Gray Hawks are daily, yesterday morning, a kiskadee was dive bombing a perched, dark morph Short-tailed Hawk.

-White-fronted Parrots, and Orange-chinned and Crimson-fronted Parakeets do daily morning and evening flyovers, sometimes, critically endangered Yellow-naped Parrots too.

-Tropical Mockingbirds sipping from orange flowers, Rufous-tailed and Cinnamon Hummingbirds at flowering bushes, occasional Green-breasted Mango on a high perch.

-Brown Jays creeping and getting scolded by Rufous-backed Wren and various other small birds.

Image
Rufous-backed Wren

-Speaking of small birds, there are common flycatchers like Tropical Kingbird, Great Kiskadee, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Social Flycatcher, and Common Tody-Flycatcher. Lately, I’ve also been seeing migrant pewees, Baltimore Orioles, and wintering Yellow Warblers among small numbers of migrating Red-eyed Vireos, Blackburnian, Black and white, and Chestnut-sided Warblers.

-Migrating swallows a la Barn, Bank, and Cliff. I also got lucky with a lone male Purple Martin. I keep looking up, hoping for a random shorebird or lost nighthawk, maybe win a birding lottery Cave or Violet-green Swallow.

-Tropical Screech-Owl calling from the farm next door. I don’t hear it every night and I wonder, is it just moving through or, does it live there all year long? With luck, it will roost from a viewable spot.

-Handsome Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers, our local version of the Red-bellied or Gila or other common woodpecker. Today, I also heard a Lineated laughing from the riparian zone.

-There’s more, always more to make hotel garden birding worthwhile.

No hurricanes but more than enough rain

In Costa Rica, we don’t usually get smashed by hurricanes but, we still get that rain. Lately, a heck of a lot of it. A hurricane happens somewhere in the Caribbean and droves of rain happen here. A tropical storm system takes place and we can get hammered with road smashing precipitation.

These days, it’s been a bit too much; buckets and waves of falling water that overflow creeks, race down roads, and precipitate landslides. Unfortunately, the main road from San Ramon to Puntarenas got washed out. I’m not sure when it will be fixed but surely before the high season. In the meantime, we’ll probably see even more traffic on the main road to the Pacific Coast, Route 27.

This link sums up roads affected and closed by heavy rains. There will surely be more, if driving from now until December, check Waze to see what’s open, think twice before driving in heavy rain on mountain roads, and don’t drive through flooded areas.

Altitudinal migrants

Heavy rains happen but the birds are still here. Several species also react to the weather. When birding lower elevations, keep an eye out for altitudinal migrants like White-ruffed Manakin, Olive-streaked Flycatcher, Black-faced Solitaire, and others.

Image
Male White-ruffed Manakin.

Umbrellabirds have also arrived to lower elevations (rare and mostly in mature rainforest in the foothills and adjacent lowlands), rare Lovely Cotingas and bellbirds can show up at lower elevations along with some hummingbirds and other interesting birds.

Year List

On a personal note, despite getting sidetracked by necessary (and thankfully successful) surgery, my year list is coming along alright. I’m at 648 species in Costa Rica for 2025, some of which I’ve added from nocturnal flight calls in the backyard (the usual way I record Veery and Gray-cheeked Thrush). There’s still time to see more, hopefully, I’ll get to the right places soon.

I hope you get out birding soon too, especially in Costa Rica. A lot to see down here and, birds are more active before and after the rains.