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January, 2014 Costa Rica Birding Round Up

The first month of 2014 has come to an end so I decided to do a “round up” of blog posts and other birding news in Costa Rica.It’s not complete by any means but with hope, it will be entertaining, and give a heads up on what to expect while birding during the next few weeks. So, since the winter has been going crazy up north we might as well start with weather:

Weather in Costa Rica: Almost the same as always. This means that it’s warm and tropical but we could still use more rain. It looks like this dry season is set to be especially dry and that doesn’t bode too well for birds, plants, and other life forms adapted to a much wetter climate. Many seasonal wetlands have already dried out in the Pacific lowlands so it could be hard to find some waterbirds. At the same time, this also means that if you do find a lagoon or two, it could be filled with storks, spoonbills, ibis, and other aquatic species. This may also explain why I saw a Glossy Ibis fly past the Tarcoles bridge on January 14th, as well as sightings of Green Ibis in Cartago and maybe even near La Gamba.

A hot and dry La Gamba road. At least there's a couple of curassows in this scene.

Migrants: It appears to be a good year for migrants from the north. On just a few trips to the Poas area this winter, I have already had sightings of two different Townsend’s Warblers, Daniel Martinez reported on seeing a Cape May Warbler in Cartago in the forums of the Union de Ornitologos de Costa Rica site, and others have seen Cedar Waxwings! Not to mention, Robert Dean just told me today that he has seen a Golden-cheeked warbler in his neck of the woods (the Monteverde area) and may have glimpsed a female Black-throated Blue! Sure, I understand that these birds might be non-issues for North American birders but they are exciting for birders from other parts of the globe, Costa Rica included. I, for one, could go for adding the waxwing and those warblers to my Costa Rican list.

There are always plenty of Tennessee Warblers to see but I wouldn't mind a Golden-cheeked.

The Black and white Owl at Cerro Lodge: It doesn’t seem as reliable in the past so have a back up plan and check the Orotina plaza. If that doesn’t work, try watching for them at any “street lamps” next to humid forest in the lowlands and foothills of both slopes. This owl species is more common than most people think but might not come out and play until after 8 at night.

Lands in Love is also a good place for the owl.

Birding blogs:

David Segura has been posting some fun birding quizzes. This young Tico birder hasn’t written much else because he has been out birding.

Seagull Steve over at Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds has some typically entertaining posts about lots of cool birding stuff and some of his fav. sightings from Costa Rica.

Manuel Antonio guide Roy Orozco wrote an informative post about birding at El Copal– great place although I was sorry to hear that they missed the cotinga (I have missed it on my two trips there as well).

January posts from my blog:

I have been doing more birding than writing so have had let time to translate thoughts into the written form but I did manage four posts for the month

I started off with a post of my 2014 hopes and birding expectations,

posted about some recent perspectives of birding at Carara National Park,

talked about why I like to patronize the Cinchona hummingbird cafe, and

finally posted about an exciting weekend of birding in the La Gamba area.

Costa Rica Birding app

It has more than 570 species and I hope we can have 600 in the next update.

Our trusty developer has also optimized it for iOS7 devices, the iPad, and it’s now also available for Android devices in the Amazon store!

Learn more about this birding app here.

Hope to see you in the field while birding in Costa Rica!