10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2018

A couple of the biggest of bird families are restricted to the Americas. Just about anywhere a birder ventures, the miniscule members of the latter family can be seen, and in most tropical locales, it’s not just one species. Costa Rica is no exception. Purple-throated Mountain-gem. Black-belllied Hummingbird.

Costa Rica 214

Costa Rica Nicaragua Panama Honduras 214

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2019

The two families of New World barbets, the Capitonidae and the Semnornithidae, are actually more related to toucans. Although most New World Barbets live in the tropical forests of South America (“the bird continent”), us birders in Costa Rica are fortunate to have two species to watch and listen to.

Costa Rica 166

Costa Rica Colombia South America Ecuador 166

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 27, 2014

The Woodpeckers are one of the more popular of the avian families. Those woodpeckers are some smart-looking birds, and Costa Rica has her fair share with 16 species that head-bang from the dry forests of the northwest to the high-elevation rainforests of the mountains. A Lineated Woodpecker looking for ants in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica 195

Costa Rica Woodpeckers Honduras Panama 195

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 28, 2015

In other words, millions of people got together with family and friends for a cozy day of mashed potatoes, gravy, apple pie, naps, football, and some serious turkeyliciousness. The turkeys I’m talking about up in here are three of the five members of the Cracidae family that occur in Costa Rica. Ain’t I great?

Costa Rica 170

Costa Rica Turkey Ecuador Hunting 170

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2014

Costa Rica is one of those places that people visit to “see the rainforest” Although there’s no such thing as “the one and only rainforest”, Costa Rica is indeed a great place to check out this biodynamic habitat. A Sunbittern strolls through wet grass at Reserva La Marta, Costa Rica.

Costa Rica 170

Costa Rica Tigers Chickens South America 170

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 3, 2015

You see, Myriam’s is located in what might be the Resplendent Quetzal capital of the world, the valley of San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica. Quetzal is THE beloved, sacred bird of Guatemala and they do live there (and in southern Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) BUT are more accessible in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica 150

Costa Rica Panama Nicaragua Honduras 150

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

It’s all good in the birding hood no matter where one raises the bins but in Costa Rica, it’s easy to get spoiled by diversity. Recently, while guiding ABA 2017 Big Year winner Yve Nagy Morrell in Costa Rica for a handful of days, we found ourselves trying for just a few more.

Costa Rica 182

Costa Rica Species San Jose Birds 182

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2017

A member of the small Ptiliogonatidae family of silky-flycatchers, of which there are only three other species besides our local Phainopepla , Phainopepl nitens. The Black-and-white Phainoptila , Phainoptila melanoxantha from Costa Rica and Panama.

Costa Rica 105

Costa Rica Panama Nevada Guatemala 105

10,000 Birds

JUNE 10, 2022

Once you get to Costa Rica, you’ll already know those birds so well, it will be like meeting distant family members and famous folks for the very first time.Over and over! In brief, you’ll be ready for those birds in Costa Rica, ready to soak them up and have a fantastic trip. Right, say what?!

Costa Rica 249

Costa Rica Birds Panama Rights 249

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2016

When I went to Honduras in 2014, I was advised to use The Birds of Costa Rica by Richard Garrigues and Robert Dean (2014) and The Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America by Steve N.G. It has been a long time between field guides for most of these countries. Howell and Sophie Webb (a classic, but big and published in 1995).

El Salvador 232

El Salvador America Costa Rica Honduras 232

10,000 Birds

JULY 27, 2013

In the new world all meadowlarks and blackbirds, along with grackles, cowbirds, orioles, oropendulas, and some others, are members of the family Icteridae , the New World Blackbirds. You can also find Red-breasted Blackbirds in Costa Rica and Panama and south to Peru and Brazil. Blackbirds are blackbirds.

Blackbirds 166

Blackbirds Trinidad Costa Rica Nicaragua 166

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

Ackerman surrounds each individual story with background facts and studies on other birds who mimic, play, parasitize nests, engage in complex cognitive routines, parent in unusual ways–presenting a complex mosaic of avian behaviors amongst bird families and the scientific histories of trying to understand them.

Research 221

Research Birds Science Costa Rica 221

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

The answers involve phylogenies, evolutionary family trees, derived from DNA studies combined with fossil records, and geological concepts of how the continents and oceans were formed from super land masses. Chapters are generously illustrated with figures, tables and photographs. 70) is adorable as well as educational.

Science 213

Science Albatross Research Birds 213

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.

Costa Rica 174

Costa Rica Panama Eating Eggs South America 174

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2015

A lot of birders who come to Costa Rica do indeed fear the flycatcher because they assume that the country’s 80 plus members of the Tyrannidae are going to be just as painful as the little beasts sporting the eye-ring/wing bar combination back home. Even the local Empids are much easier than the migrants.

Costa Rica 192

Costa Rica Panama Species Sparrows 192

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

Birds of Central America: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rican, and Panama , just published in October, is a field guide that was ten years in the making. These introductory texts become more specific when there are multiple spreads for large bird families, like ‘Gulls Laridae.’

America 213

America El Salvador Costa Rica Honduras 213

10,000 Birds

MARCH 1, 2011

home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Birds / Veraguan Mango – Panama’s ex-endemic Veraguan Mango – Panama’s ex-endemic By James • March 1, 2011 • 4 comments Tweet Share Endemism is special. So where does this leave Panama?

Panama 205

Panama Costa Rica 2011 Cleveland 205

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2017

The guide presents 69 species and 1 subspecies, from “NEW WORLD VULTURES: Cathartiformes” to “OSPREY: Pandioninae” to “FAMILY: Accipitridae” (Kites, Hawks, Eagles, Hawk-Eagles), to “FALONIDS: Falconidae” (Falcons, Forest-Falcons, Caracaras, Kestrels, Merlin). Owls are not included, though they sometimes are in ‘raptor’ guides.

Mexico 162

Mexico America North America Falcons 162

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 5, 2021

Some odonates (dragonflies and damselflies) are included in Costa Rica nature guides, but there are hundreds of these beautiful creatures flying around the diverse habitats of Costa Rican and there has not been a guide devoted just to them till now. Still, I have been stuck trying to identify a dragonfly I photographed in 2010.

Costa Rica 260

Costa Rica North America Family America 260

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2018

But, I think the birding world is big enough to accommodate more than one way to identify the members of this infamous family. A larophile is a gull enthusiast, taken from the genus name Larus and/or the family name Laridae. It may be intimidating to beginning birders, even with its “simplified” approach.

North America 199

North America America El Salvador Nicaragua 199

10,000 Birds

APRIL 28, 2018

In addition to Spanish, several other languages continue to be spoken, the pines and cypress trees of the Guatemalan highlands only occur as introduced species once you travel south of Nicaragua, and dozens of bird species that occur in Costa Rica and Panama don’t even make it to Nicaragua. How true this was!

Costa Rica 114

Costa Rica Guatemala Birds Nicaragua 114

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2012

Press in 2009), active participation in the Dragonfly Society of the Americas and leading dragonfly trips to Costa Rica and, hopefully this summer, Panama. I know from experience how accessible Dennis is, last year he helped me identify a damselfly I photographed in Costa Rica (Argia anceps, no common name).

United States 231

United States Costa Rica Massachusetts North America 231

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

Found in Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua, this tiny hummingbird is placed within its own genus microchera. Nowhere common, this wonderful hummer is found from Costa Rica to Peru and is a specific pollinator of the heliconia flowers it attends. Coming in at no. 19 is the celestial Red-tailed Comet.

Colombia 279

Colombia Ecuador Bolivia Peru 279