10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 30, 2021

If it doesn’t find enough to eat, it might become too tired to watch for predators and be snatched up by a domestic cat or any number of animals that are always watching, eternally waiting for an easy lunch. Cope had been inside making us some coffee (nothing like watching birds and drinking coffee in Costa Rica).

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Costa Rica Investigation Shelters Illinois 250

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2019

I think this is one of the reasons why so many people visiting Costa Rica want to see the bird with the big banana bill, some ask if you have seen “the toucan” Photos and field guides have shown them that these fantastic cartoonish birds do indeed exist and they have heard that a lot of visitors to Costa Rica see toucans.

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Costa Rica Panama Eating Eggs South America 166

10,000 Birds

JUNE 22, 2019

The tropical habitats of Costa Rica are home to a surprising number of raptor species. Although the country is around the same size as West Virginia, 39 species of diurnal raptors are on the list. In Costa Rica, this is the case for many raptors and is why fewer than expected are found during an average birding trip.

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Costa Rica Eagles West Virginia Opossums 172

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2019

One of the quandaries of birding in Costa Rica is deciding where to go birding. Costa Rica’s small size, ease of access and massive avian diversity promises a wealth of birds in many places. Other dry forest species made appearances, Stripe-headed Sparrows being especially common.

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Costa Rica Morals Panama Parrots 137

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 28, 2017

In Costa Rica, October is our May. We might not get the variety of a New Jersey autumn but we do get major numbers of species that winter in South America. However, this year, we opted for a site that could also give a chance at Great Jacamar and a few other key resident species in addition to migrants.

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Costa Rica Birds Parrots Farming 149

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2017

That’s OK, we love all sorts of birds, I even love imaginary ones, and the ones that come to the backyard are also ideal starter species. In Costa Rica, the Blue-gray Tanager is an ideal species for opening the door to everything birds. How this species is often seen inside the forest. Not a Gartered Trogon.

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Costa Rica Dominican Republic Kansas Guinea 115

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2014

Thanks to fortunate foresight, a lot of land was set aside in Costa Rica as national parks and protected areas (and some of these are easily accessed) but the best forest still happens to be at the terminus of the road and en route, you will be treated to species deficit birding in plenty of pastures.

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Costa Rica San Jose Sharks Monkeys 237

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2024

(of a plant or animal) native and restricted to a certain place. When a birder uses the word, we usually refer to a species that canbe mostly or exclusively found in a single country. And indeed they had; we saw 7 wild duck species, where usually there are none. More evidence of resilience?

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Costa Rica Mexico North America Lions 176

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2018

That might not sound like much but trust me, in Costa Rica, this is major. Quite the host, show up, pay the $10 trail fee and Geovani might give you coffee, pineapples, or papaya while cracking jokes and talking about the birds and other animals that have come to live in the area of regrowth around the trail. Fancy curassows.

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Costa Rica Owls Eagles Birds 117

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 9, 2017

I am in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, in the very southeastern corner of Costa Rica. But why would someone look for that, an easy and common one among the 920+ bird species of Costa Rica? Part one: An Absolute Beginner in Costa Rica. One of those pooie reptiles: Green Iguana by Niklas Aronsson.

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Costa Rica Reptiles Farming Mississippi 131

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

The Arenal Observatory Lodge & Spa in La Fortuna de San Carlos, Costa Rica has a rich history as a birding-friendly eco-lodge. This also makes the Arenal Observatory Lodge an ideal location for wildlife observation in Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica Reptiles Research Industry 152

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 27, 2018

Many of them come to Costa Rica because even when it rains, it never really gets cold this far south of the Tropic of Cancer. Surviving on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. This might be partly why Halloween hasn’t taken hold in Costa Rica. These are the winners: BEST COSTUMES. Laughing Falcon.

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Costa Rica Bats Birds Falcons 152

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2021

But I felt that photos of Mexican species wouldn’t make much sense to west-coast Americans, so I added some descriptions of the birds and how I saw them. But most of our forest has a combination of both pines and oaks, with dozens of species from each family growing in the state of Michoacán. It’s all about the avocados.

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Costa Rica Birds Mexico illegal 149

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. This bird is 3 inches long, lives in the darkest part of the jungle understory of Costa Rica, and never sits still! I finally caught this one in the Alexander Skutch Bird Sanctuary.

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2018 Costa Rica South Africa New Zealand 152

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

We nature lovers, celebrants of life in all its exquisite multiformity, feel more keenly than most the loss of even the most undifferentiated species. And some of the extinctions were of small animals, like the many dwarf goats and elephants in the Mediterranean. Australia’s extinct and threatened bird species. What a horror!

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Marsupials Costa Rica Elephants Cuba 165

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 24, 2018

Nearly 30,000 of these acres is set aside as dry wilderness habitat for other birds, animals and other various living creatures. In about 10 days, we leave for our last (at least up to now) out of the US trip, with 21 days scheduled in Costa Rica. US species – 243. eBird.org submissions – 312.

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New Mexico Mexico Tucson Arizona 113

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2011

Now this, might not sound like anything of particular ground-breaking significance, but in the context of animal personality research, it is a fairly big thing. Whilst working on Scarlet Macaws in Costa Rica , I had the pleasure of having Katherine Herbourn assist with some of the field work we were doing. Makes sense really.

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Cats 2011 Costa Rica Deer 146

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2012

I even managed to shoot a video with hands trembling of excitement, probably a first of the species. To finally connect with the species and to do so in such subtle light and with two very confiding individuals makes them my Best Bird of the Year! 2012 was one of my best years for birding in Costa Rica.

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2012 Ghana Ireland Birds 133

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2011

Dale studied scarlet macaws, and worked in their conservation, for three years in southern Costa Rica, followed by a year in the Caribbean working on Whale Sharks. In the case of Acorn Woodpeckers, they are cooperative breeders (as with many other polygynandrous species), which seems to predispose species to polygynandry.

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2011 Breeders Breeding Deer 202