10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

In Costa Rica, thankfully, we have some sweet, quick and easy opportunities at beautiful birds that are just an hour’s drive from the airport. The following are twelve such species of hummingbirds easily seen after an hour or so drive from the San Jose area: Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. White-bellied Mountain-gem.

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Costa Rica San Jose Panama Arizona 159

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2018

December is a busy time in Costa Rica. 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. The White-vented Euphonia is more forest based than other euphonia species in Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Falcons 172

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

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. There are much birdier sites in Costa Rica, and some of them are a short drive away.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Eagles 132

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2018

Northern Emerald Toucanets in Costa Rica are sometimes considered a separate species known as the Blue-throated Toucanet. I was reminded of that fact on June 23rd during the first official bird count at the Locos por el Bosque Reserve in Montserrat de Coronado, Costa Rica. This bad boy beauty isn’t even rare!

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Eagles 134

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. but it’s not common in Costa Rica. Destinations Costa Rica' I know, MODO, whoop-de-mofo-doo!

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Owls 221

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. Just about everybody who visits Costa Rica asks this question and I often ask it myself.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Owls 163

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. This small antbird species is common in Panama to Ecuador but rare in Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica San Jose Panama Birds 165

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. Trips Costa Rica hummingbirds'

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Costa Rica San Jose Species Owls 203

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2022

In most places, the number of birds makes it a challenge to pick just one signature species, Costa Rica included. In Costa Rica, one such bird is the Crimson-fronted Parakeet. In a nutshell, that’s a lot of Costa Rica, that’s a lot of Crimson-fronted Parakeets.

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Costa Rica San Jose Asia Geese 147

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. I sample birding on Poas more often than at other sites in Costa Rica because it’s close to home and makes for a worthwhile guided day trip from the San Jose area. Which migrants use Poas?

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Costa Rica Species San Jose Birds 100

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. In Costa Rica, even the super shy Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon is seen more often than the island pigeon with the snow-white cap.

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Costa Rica San Jose Bats Birds 100

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. A pair of Shining Honeycreepers.

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Costa Rica San Jose Sharks Monkeys 244

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2018

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). In Costa Rica, most of the six toucan species are fairly common, and one of those is the green, blue, and chestnut Northern Emerald Toucanet. It’s hefty!

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Panama 117

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2015

There are lots of great birding sites in Costa Rica. Although most birders visiting Costa Rica hit pretty much the same sites, you could just as well go to a bunch of other, lesser known places with the same type of habitat and see most of the same birds. Ruddy-breasted Seedeaters are also common at Medio Queso.

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Costa Rica Chile Nicaragua San Jose 174

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 268

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2015

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. This break from the rain coincides with two weeks off from school, and also makes a perfect excuse for visiting Costa Rica during the summer.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Owls 162

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. As many of might know by now, we have covered a lot of ground this year, with Costa Rica being our ninth country visited.

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Costa Rica Tigers San Jose Woodpeckers 115

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2017

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. We also had close looks at the local for Costa Rica Gray-chested Dove. Nicaraguan Seed-Finch.

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Farming 120

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 9, 2016

Are you headed to Costa Rica this year? Hotspots : Costa Rica has so much good birding packed into a small place, it would be easy to give hotspot status to the entire country. To see more information about hotspots in Costa Rica , I also wrote something about it.

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Costa Rica 2016 San Jose Birds 103

10,000 Birds

MARCH 31, 2018

If it’s high quality coffee, the trip is that much better (and yet another reason why Costa Rica is awesome)! These are pertinent questions for the inquiring birding mind which, thank goodness, can be readily answered if you go birding in Costa Rica at the right places. Do they puff? How do they exist?

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Costa Rica San Jose Birds Game 106

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 170

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. A day in the Carara area.

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Costa Rica Species San Jose Birds 182

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 184

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2017

One of those transition areas is my favorite habitat in Costa Rica because it blends the richness of lowland avifauna with some aspects of the highlands along with a local set of restricted bird species. It’s always exciting to go birding in foothill rainforest!

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Costa Rica San Jose Species America 137

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

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.), Don’t you hate it when you cannot communicate while birding overseas? while the rest of the group took a hike.

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Bears San Jose Greece Costa Rica 139

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2020

There are three species of crow-like cotingas with odd hairdos known as umbrellabirds, the Bare-necked Umbrellabird is the one that lives in Costa Rica. Ruffs from Israel, the one in Costa Rica kind of looked like the top bird. Emerald Tanager -one of several beautiful tanagers that live in Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica 2019 San Jose Eagles 187

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2017

In Costa Rica, we don’t get many chances to chase birds. Most times, because they don’t usually stick to one spot, you can’t really twitch the super rare residents and since they live in Costa Rica all year long, I’m not so sure if they fall into the twitchable category anyways.

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Costa Rica San Jose Falcons Nicaragua 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 19, 2016

March is birding madness in Costa Rica. Although I honestly wish that was the case and that we would have a four day holiday where everyone is encouraged to do a Big Day, we play as demure a role in Costa Rica as we do in most places. People with binos roam the forests in lightweight khaki clothes.

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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. Rio san jose. If you entered the sweepstake to predict when the 4000 barrier would be breached and suggested Corey at 13.38 Just me then? Falcon State Park (LTC 084).

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2020 Sanctuary Australia Sparrows 154