10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

With birds like Ornate Hawk-Eagle and Snowcap possible, how can you not take up birding while living in Costa Rica? It was something that truly caught me by surprise, a bird usually heard or seen in Mexico or certain, out of the way gulches in Arizona. The sightings raise several questions. Where did they come from?

Costa Rica 213

Costa Rica Latvia Albatross Netherlands 213

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2012

They reside there at the top of a small mountain sanctuary as mythical as my first remembrances of ancient thunderbirds, living, mating, and raising young. But there is also this: It’s not unusual for a condor to wait days for a meal, often “notified” first by ravens and golden eagles who are frequently the first to feed.

California Condor 207

California Condor California Idaho North America 207

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2016

Zingy Zeledon’s Antbirds sang from the undergrowth, along with Bay Wrens , Tufted Flycatchers (if you saw one in Arizona, it probably wasn’t the same species), tanagers, Tropical Parulas , Spotted Barbtail , and other birds including Thicket Antpitta , the first time I have heard that species at the site.

Costa Rica 123

Costa Rica Falcons Birds North Carolina 123

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2018

After a slow start, enough chicks had been hatched and raised by 1991 to allow for the release of captive-bred condors in the wild in California. Reintroduction efforts expanded to Arizona in 1996, and later, to the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. A California Condor soaring over the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

California Condor 104

California Condor Oregon California Zoos 104