I would love to guide three week tours in Costa Rica that culminate in 500 plus bird species. We would stalk mossy, middle elevation forests in search of Ochre-breasted Antpitta, quail-doves, and Lanceolated Monklet. Mid-morning skies above Quebrada Gonzalez would be scanned for hawk-eagles, King Vulture, and other raptors. Exciting, bird filled days would be [...]
Continue reading about Costa Rica Birding Highlights from Guiding at Carara National Park
I haven’t been birding in the western end of the Central Valley for at least a month but I was reminded of how good the birding is near the town of San Ramon when the Union de Ornitologos de Costa Rica released the Christmas Count Results for this area on March 4th. The results can [...]
Continue reading about Don’t Ignore the San Ramon Area When Birding Costa Rica
Cotingas! An appropriately evocative sounding name for breathtaking birds that look like the results of someone’s wild imagination. They all seem to be odd or wacky because birders familiar with temperate zone families just don’t know what to make of them. Purple-throated Fruitcrow- hmmm, if it’s a crow then why does it have shiny purple [...]
Continue reading about The Best Sites for Seeing Cotinga Species when Birding Costa Rica
Cost Rica abounds with rivers, streams, rivulets, brooks, ravines, and glens. Even aquatic ecologists bound by profession to maintain strict definitions for bodies of water that flow down gradients would find all of the above and more in Costa Rica. The mountainous terrain and giant bucketloads of rain combine forces to fill the country with [...]
With the dry and high season for tourism and birding in Costa Rica rapidly approaching (or already here with the incredibly beautiful weather we are having these days), I figured that a post on “preparing for your trip” was in order. Another deciding factor for doing this post as opposed to uploading images of and writing [...]
Continue reading about What to bring on a birding trip to Costa Rica
I never tire of watching wild parrots. Since I don’t exactly get tired of observing any birds, perhaps what I really mean to say is that an inescapable twinge of excitement accompanies every screech and sighting that can be attributed to any of Costa Ricas 17 Psittacid species. Whether it’s the daily flyovers of Crimson-fronted [...]
Continue reading about Tips on parrot identification when birding Costa Rica
With so many excellent possibilities to choose from when birding Costa Rica, it can be difficult to decide upon an itinerary. “Classic” sites like Sarapiqui, Monteverde, the Dota Valley, and Carara tempt with easy access, good infrastructure, and mouth watering trip reports. The biologically hyperactive Osa Peninsula, tall forests of Tortuguero, and monkey rich Santa [...]
Continue reading about Tapanti National Park is always worth a visit when birding Costa Rica
From the second story of our house in Santa Barbara de Heredia, we can see the Talamancas rising up in the hazy distance off to the southeast and big, blocky Irazu with a slight turn of the head to the left. Volcan Turrialba lies hidden behind 11,000 foot Irazu but still makes itself known by [...]
Continue reading about Mountain roads and Volcan Barva birding in Costa Rica
September to early December is always a rainy time in Costa Rica but this year is expected to be worse. Although El Nino will be taking a break from wreaking meteorological havoc on the region, we won’t luck out with dry weather like last year because La Nina has decided to show up and throw [...]
Continue reading about Birding Costa Rica during the 2010 rainy season
I had the fortune of birding Quebrada Gonzalez for two consecutive Saturdays after a three or four month hiatus. The entrance to Quebrada Gonzalez. It was good to be back, especially so because it wasn’t pouring down monstrous sheets of rain. Yes, the area does get its fair share of precipitation. The heavy load of [...]
Continue reading about Updates on birding at the Quebrada Gonzalez ranger station, Costa Rica
