10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2018

December is a busy time in Costa Rica. It’s busy on the birding side of things as well. The counts act as our end of the year birding festivities and 2018 brings us more than ever. I have only been there twice before, the following is some of what I was reminded of from this bird count: Good participation.

Costa Rica 185

Costa Rica San Jose Birds Falcons 185

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2018

In Costa Rica, it’s not hard to find birds. Even if you had to spend a few frustrating days stuck in the urban wonderland of San Jose and surroundings, you still share the streets and parks with screeching Crimson-fronted Parakeets. In Costa Rica, we grow coffee. Really good coffee!

Costa Rica 143

Costa Rica San Jose Birds Eagles 143

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2018

Peer into the branches of the big trees and we might see the shapes of an Emerald Toucanet, tanagers, woodcreepers, and other birds doing their thing in the cloud forest life. Northern Emerald Toucanets in Costa Rica are sometimes considered a separate species known as the Blue-throated Toucanet.

Costa Rica 145

Costa Rica San Jose Birds Eagles 145

10,000 Birds

APRIL 4, 2015

Irazu is the name of a volcano in Costa Rica. It’s sort of stuck between San Jose and Cartago and since it’s a volcano, it doesn’t stop at dominating the skyline. The lack of eruptions is also welcome because it’s a pretty good place for a day of birding. I know, MODO, whoop-de-mofo-doo!

Costa Rica 234

Costa Rica San Jose Birds Owls 234

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

When the birding slows down, someone usually lets out the excuse that our hobby wouldn’t be as fun if there was no challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I love a chase and get satisfaction from creeping around the rainforest, but when pressed for time, I’ll be happy to settle for easy looks at balcony birds.

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Costa Rica San Jose Panama Arizona 172

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 4, 2014

Complain on a birding trip to Costa Rica? Without further ado, the following are the five most common annoyances and gripes that birders have when doing their thing in Costa Rica, along with my personal solutions: 1. Or, I bird somewhere near the park during top birding times and enter when it officially opens.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Owls 168

10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2019

I recently returned from a twelve day birding tour of Costa Rica with Lifer Tours guided by an incredible birder, David Rodriquez. I began the trip with a rather long drive from the airport hotel in San Jose to Punta Uva on the southern Caribbean coast for a couple of “free” days before joining the actual tour.

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Costa Rica San Jose Species Rights 115

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2016

Costa Rica is situated right between two oceans. Over there on the Caribbean (that’s what we call the Atlantic Ocean in Costa Rica), the lowlands are supposed to be blanketed in lush, over-vegetated rainforests. To the north of this mountainous isthmus, we have the Atlantic. In the other direction, the Pacific.

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Costa Rica San Jose Panama Birds 166

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2018

Flying in to Costa Rica is accompanied by porthole views of the Central Valley and the mountains that flank it. That circular, uninviting body of water marks the main crater of Poas Volcano, a mountain that hosts the most accessible and nearest area of quality bird habitat to the Juan Santamaria airport. Two hundred?

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica Species San Jose Birds 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2018

Although still large enough to be a menace to nesting birds, they aren’t as super sized as the “quintessential toucans”, the ones we see on cereal boxes and in advertising. for its kind that even in Costa Rica, images of the Brazilian species have been used for marketing (much to the chagrin and dismay of local birders).

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Panama 125

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2017

As with peninsulas and places situated on an isthmus, Costa Rica has more than one coast. White-crowned Pigeon might be on the list, but that rare prize for Costa Rica is far from regular. Birds with white on them are much more likely to take the form of goodies like the Snowy Cotinga , or two species of tityras.

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica San Jose Birds Bats 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2022

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. As one might expect, signature birds take many forms. Bird in southern Asia and there are mynas and magpie-robins.

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Costa Rica San Jose Asia Geese 147

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2014

Whether made of asphalt, gravel, or dirt, they help us reach more birding sites in less time. In Costa Rica, one of the best “end of the road” places for birding and getting crazy with biodiversity is the Osa Peninsula. As befits an end of the road destination, Luna Lodge is true wilderness birding.

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Costa Rica San Jose Sharks Monkeys 252

10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2015

Yes, the time had come to see how many of Costa Rica’s hummingbird species we could find, and we had two days to work with. This oh so awesome endeavor was apparently somewhat inspired by a blog post I had written that toyed with the idea of doing a hummingbird big day in Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica San Jose Species Owls 215

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2015

There are lots of great birding sites in Costa Rica. In fact, go anywhere with a good amount of natural forest and the birding is gonna be good. Although a straight fast road might not seem to be a big deal, it’s a rare, welcome occurrence in seriously mountainous Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica Chile Nicaragua San Jose 179

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2020

Costa Rica is a country situated well south of the Tropic of Cancer and like most places without a winter, parrots are an essential part of the local avifauna. With 18 species of native Psittacids to choose from, birding in Costa Rica is always a thrill, especially for someone who grew up in parrotless Niagara Falls, New York!

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Parrots Costa Rica San Jose Endangered Species 275

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2017

Last weekend, I went on a birding binge. I spent two full days where the birding was near constant, and, just to keep the binoculars from being neglected, topped it off with another half day of birding on our drive back from Cano Negro, Costa Rica. Most of the counting was done from boats.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Farming 128

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2015

It’s the end of June and up north, the birds are busy with their young, and taking full advantage of the summer’s arthropod bounty. In Costa Rica, since winter doesn’t exist, June is kind of like every other month except that it rains more and the little summer of San Juan is right around the corner.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Owls 162

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

Birds can be enjoyed in a wide variety of ways. Those of us who chase rare birds for our counties, states, or other human-made geographical distinctions watch birds for more reasons than the twitch. Personally, I enjoy birds in every way. After a bird rich morning at Cope’s.

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Costa Rica Species San Jose Birds 195

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2016

Are you headed to Costa Rica this year? I hope so because the birding and biodiversity are fantastic, and the flight time from most places in the USA is less than six hours. In other words, it’s easier to bird than most might think. Expect lots of hummingbird action, Emerald Toucanet , barbets, and more.

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Costa Rica 2016 San Jose Birds 105

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2018

A successful birding adventure tends to include a fair bit of planning. 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. Supposedly real but how?

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Game 108

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2018

Ah, Costa Rica, so long I have dreamed of visiting you and your amazing birds. As many of might know by now, we have covered a lot of ground this year, with Costa Rica being our ninth country visited. After landing in San Jose ay close to 10:00 PM, we made our way to our first Air BnB just north of the airport.

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Costa Rica Tigers San Jose Woodpeckers 115

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 23, 2011

Costa Rica enjoys an international reputation as an iconic birding location, bursting with epic Neotropical species and breathtaking natural attractions. Understandably, certain lodges have, over the years, come to be associated with the Costa Rican birding circuit.

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Costa Rica San Jose Sanctuary Protection 174

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

Our trip to Costa Rica has come to an end, and sadly, it ended with one of the best weeks of birding in the entire year. We spent to bulk of the week in the San Isidro El General area, staying there as well as up in the Quizarra area. Here is a link to the projects website, sponsored by York University.

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Costa Rica San Jose Chinchillas Family 194

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2017

Want to know a good recipe for tons of different bird species? The end result is southern Central America and in terms of birds, we get a bonanza of literally hundreds of bird species in a pretty small place. It’s always exciting to go birding in foothill rainforest!

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Costa Rica San Jose Species America 149

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Don’t you hate it when you cannot communicate while birding overseas? Having mobility issues, I still remember birding from a van along a rather productive dirt road in Costa Rica ( Broad-billed Motmot , Lineated Woodpecker , Cocoa Woodcreeper , etc.), while the rest of the group took a hike. Yes, I thought so too.

Bears 148

Bears San Jose Greece Costa Rica 148

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2020

For birders doing the year bird thing, the last day of the year is likely too late for most new additions but, luckily, those who don’t want to venture outside with optics in hand can always mark the end of the year by sharing tales of favorite sightings with favorite fellow birders. Bird counts. Three days, three hawk-eagles.

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Costa Rica 2019 San Jose Eagles 204

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2017

In Costa Rica, we don’t get many chances to chase birds. The same goes for other challenging resident birds like the Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo, Speckled Mourner, and Gray-headed Piprites. No matter where in the world we bird, it seems like the ones we twitch are the birds that aren’t supposed to be there.

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica San Jose Falcons Nicaragua 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2016

March is birding madness in Costa Rica. They hold up traffic to stare into a flowering tree, take over hotels, and DEMAND easy access to bird feeders from the hot sunny coast to the high reaches of the misty paramo. People with binos roam the forests in lightweight khaki clothes. A distant look at a Great Green Macaw.

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Costa Rica San Jose Liberia Birds 101

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2020

9 beats visited 9 countries (China, Costa Rica, USA, UK, India, Australia, Jamaica , Serbia and Japan) and submitted 151 checklists when they got back. Ota Ward–Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park (including Tidal Pond)). Villa San Ignacio, Alajuela. Rocklands Bird Sanctuary. Rocklands Bird Sanctuary.

2020 157

2020 Sanctuary Australia Sparrows 157