10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

Indeed, you only live twice: your second life starts when you bird Costa Rica for the first time. And, yee-haw, this would be my second attempt at a second life: three weeks ago I was invited to bird Costa Rica! Do you ever manage to get ready for a birding trip in a calm and orderly fashion?

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Costa Rica San Jose Battery Serbia 262

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

10,000 Birds is running a series of articles by and about tour guides, tour companies, eco-lodges, and other birding travel organizations. We want to help the birding tourism industry come back strong from the COVID pandemic. Welcome back to the paradise of birding in the Arenal region of Costa Rica!

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Costa Rica San Jose Liberia Farming 203

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

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. Stop to listen in many a cloud forest on this side of the globe and we are also soothed and entertained by the songs of birds.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Eagles 145

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

San Francisco averages two-tenths of an inch for the month, while San Jose only averages half that much. I had set aside the morning of Sunday, June 10th to cross the San Francisco Peninsula to the Pacific Ocean town of Half Moon Bay, a mere 25 minute drive away, for a few hours of birding.

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San Francisco San Jose California Battery 147

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 171

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Global Big Day has become an annual collective event in May that encourages thousands of people to watch birds on the same date. As far as promoting birding goes, the only thing better might be October Gobal Big Day ! We had a lot of rain in some parts of the country, some places had landslides, and birding was somewhat limited.

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Costa Rica San Jose Falcons Owls 275

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2020

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! Fancy bird like this Brown-hooded Parrot are common in many forested parts of the country. Like 99% of parrots, this is a colorful bird with a loud voice.

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Parrots Costa Rica San Jose Endangered Species 275

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2014

obsessing over World Cup matches), here’s some bird news to peruse: Loss of suitable habitat , instead of insecticides, seems to be the culprit in declining numbers of grassland birds. Know what else kills grassland birds? Meanwhile, in San Jose, Calif., officials are considering bird-friendly building regulations.

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San Jose Parrots Kenya Paraguay 160

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.), The post Foreign Languages on a Birding Trip appeared first on 10,000 Birds.

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Bears San Jose Greece Costa Rica 148

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2018

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. On account of its remote nature, this is one of the lesser known protected areas in Costa Rica but that doesn’t keep it from being an excellent area for birding.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Falcons 184

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2018

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. That always makes me wonder just how many birds occur on the slopes of Poas. This Red-faced Spinetail was one of them. Two hundred?

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Costa Rica Species San Jose Birds 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2016

I don’t see many long-term benefits to a landscape where large areas have been converted to monocultures of banana, pineapples (real eco-deserts full of poison), and cow, but it’s at least worthwhile to know that such habitats are pretty worthless for birding. At least that’s how it was at Casa Calateas.

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Costa Rica San Jose Panama Birds 166

10,000 Birds

APRIL 4, 2015

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. One of those birds happens to be the good old Resplendent Quetzal.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Owls 234

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

That gave me Sunday morning off to re-visit the estuary at San Jose Del Cabo for the first time since Hurricane Lidia struck the area. The good news on that front was that I was able to see several of these very endangered birds. Depending on the bird guide you are referring to, they do, or do not show up on the Baja.

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San Jose Panama Texas Mexico 119

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2016

The plight of one very small bird is really put on the back burner when you are talking about millions of dollars in wages, taxes, home sales and rental fees. The wet lands around San Jose Del Cabo and Todos Santos are the primary areas for the population, but I have seen them in Agua Caliente and as far north as La Purisima.

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San Jose Mexico California Species 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2017

Birds with white on them are much more likely to take the form of goodies like the Snowy Cotinga , or two species of tityras. Masked Tityra – the most frequently encountered small bird in Costa Rica with white plumage. The Caribbean slope of Costa Rica also differs from the islands in having a lot more bird species.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Bats 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. This beauty is fairly common in cloud forest, even on the volcanic slopes that overlook the urban conglomeration known as San Jose.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Panama 124

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 26, 2017

I have just returned from Costa Rica, the country about which I knew very little, despite it coming under my radar all the way back in 1999 when the “Africa – Birds & Birding” magazine published some of John Graham’s experiences from his visit in 1993. The unspoken words “to watch birds” were left hanging in the air.

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Costa Rica San Jose Serbia Europe 190

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. Like most of my birding weekends, this one began somewhere in the Central Valley.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Farming 128

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 28, 2014

Especially if you can fit in some birding? Many gringos make their way to Baja California Sur every year, although the majority are probably heading to Cabo San Lucas to party and test the human limit of tequila endurance. Of course, the town also boasts some very fun birding.

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California San Jose Birds Mexico 231

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 251

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

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. So is classic, comfortable birding at Rancho Naturalista , and lowland rainforest birding in the Sarapiqui area. Blue-crowned Motmot – a common bird of hotel gardens.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Owls 162

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. Visiting those out of the way spots is necessary if you want to add these and other choice “bonus birds” to the three or four hundred species ticked at the usual sites.

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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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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! Red-headed Barbet. Lattice-tailed Trogon.

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Costa Rica San Jose Species America 149

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2016

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. The owners have been faithfully feeding the birds and welcoming birders for years, and it’s only going to get better in 2016.

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Costa Rica 2016 San Jose Birds 105

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 17, 2016

There is of course the dry, cactus strewn desert areas, but with mountains up to 7000 feet, the habitat for our local birds is quite varied. While considered a migratory bird for this area, we do have a few the summer over. Many of the birds that do stay year round tend to congregate around the mangrove trees.

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10,000 Birds

MARCH 7, 2015

The original idea involved a roundabout trip that went from the San Jose area to the wet foothills and lowlands of the Caribbean slope, then back up to cloud forest, high-elevation forest, way back down to the hot habitats of the Pacific coast, and then up to San Jose.

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Costa Rica San Jose Species Owls 214

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. His years of experience in this area were quite obvious as we found 62 species in one morning.

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Costa Rica San Jose Chinchillas Family 194

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2018

Ah, Costa Rica, so long I have dreamed of visiting you and your amazing birds. 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. After two nights, with one full day to bird in between, I had added 28 new birds to the Little Big Year list, and 21 new Lifers!

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Costa Rica Tigers San Jose Woodpeckers 115

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. San Vito Birding Club meeting.

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Costa Rica 2019 San Jose Eagles 203

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.

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Costa Rica San Jose Falcons Nicaragua 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2019

If you are like me, you can get a fair amount of birding done while traveling with your non-birder spouse… as long as you make sure you visit places with lots of other interesting activities, to keep that spouse happy. But I really want you to come bird Morelia. This is not the best birding decision. to be exact).

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Birds San Jose Los Angeles Fort Worth 171

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. Cerro Lodge : Around an hour and a half from the airport, this is the place to stay when birding Carara National Park.

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Costa Rica San Jose Liberia Birds 101