June is already here! The older you get, the quicker time flies. Untested and unproven but nevertheless true. Just ask anyone who has surpassed 40 years on this planet. Suddenly, before you know it, the 50 year milestone stops creeping way off in the distance and gets up to begin a steady and unsettling trot, […]
Continue reading about Halfway Point During a Year of Birding in Costa Rica- 616 Down, 84 More To Go
More mature forest means more birds. The copious number of individual birds, a good number of species, and near constant avian action in second growth can trick us into viewing edge habitats as the best places to bird. While the thick, successional growth at the edge of rainforest does host a number of species, including […]
Continue reading about Intact, Mature Forest Equals More Understory Species
Last Saturday, May 13, more than 20,000 birders went birding and put their results into eBird. It was the third Global Big Day and the biggest one yet. If the day would have been a competition (and some countries did sort treat the day as such) Colombia took first place with more than 1,400 species […]
Continue reading about Some Nice Finds on Global Big Day, 2017
When most birders think of Costa Rica, shorebirds don’t usually come to mind. Although thousands of waders do winter and migrate through the country, let’s face it, people with serious bins usually visit Costa Rica for a pleasantly high number of regional endemics, a few dozen hummingbirds, glittering tanagers, quetzals, and the list goes on […]
Continue reading about Some Sites for Shorebirds in Costa Rica
Study for birding? What? Didn’t we spend enough of our lives studying during high school and university? To pass our tests for a driver’s license? To compete on Jeopardy? Whether you dislike studying or not, it’s the right thing to do before a birding trip to Costa Rica. Make that any birding trip anywhere. This […]
Continue reading about Why It’s Important to Study Before a Birding Trip to Costa Rica
Coinciding with the start of the rains, the green season has arrived, quite literally. Brown, windswept dry season vegetation has come back to life, the birds are singing, building nests, and there is a Clay-colored Thrush going after its reflection in the window that faces the backyard. It doesn’t matter how many times I open […]
Continue reading about Tips for Green Season Birding in Costa Rica
Last Sunday, I got in a morning of birding at two sites in the Central Valley. To be honest, one site was actually a pseudo-chase, the bird in question a Grasshopper Sparrow that had been reported on eBird in March. Whether the birds were wintering there or just determined to skulk, I believe we found […]
Continue reading about Birding in Costa Rica at Bosque del Nino
If you pay attention to this blog, there’s a fair chance that you know about my Big Days in Costa Rica. If not, then allow me to explain. Each year, I spend way too much planning and analyzing a route that can result in 300 plus species of birds. With more than 900 species on […]
If you are a birder in Costa Rica, of course you want to see a tinamou or two or three! Tinamous are the weird Neotropical equivalent of a cross between a grouse, quail, and football. Most have whistled vocalizations that tend to be a blend of haunting and beautiful. However, those sounds can also be […]
Unfortunately, not as much as we used to. Last week, I had the chance to spend some quality time around Rincon de la Vieja while guiding a trip for the Birding Club of Costa Rica. We stayed at Rinconcito Lodge, birded around there, and spent one morning at the Las Pailas sector of the park. […]
Continue reading about Birding Costa Rica at Rincon de la Vieja- What to Expect in 2016
