I had a long, bird-filled day while guiding in and around Carara National Park yesterday and thought that I might share some news, tips, sightings, what have you. In no particular order: 1. Stay on the trails: While looking for birds along the Laguna Meandrica trail (the “river trail” of Carara birding fame), our group [...]
Continue reading about Recent Birding News from Carara National Park, Costa Rica
El Tapir is a defunct butterfly garden (how many sites have that claim to fame?) a couple kilometers past Quebrada Gonzalez on the right side of the highway as you head towards Limon. During the latter 90s it received a fair number of visitors and cabins were being built to provide accommodation for excited, happy [...]
This past weekend, I co-guided the Birding Club of Costa Rica trip to a site that never fails in dealing out a wild card of high quality species. Birding at Heliconias Lodge is akin to shopping at an international antique bazaar where treasure awaits for those who know how to find it. Walk carefully and [...]
Continue reading about A Few Gems from Birding in Costa Rica at Heliconias Lodge
When planning a birding trip to Costa Rica or other biodiverse tropical locales, there are a few basic steps that most birders take. Above all, a field guide must be acquired to hint at the birds that creep, fly, and call from those distant, beckoning rainforests. This is of basic important because you need a [...]
Continue reading about Some Recent Birding Magic from Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Antbirds rule but a lot of them are just terribly difficult to see. Take Immaculate Antbird for example. Go to Tapanti, Virgen del Socorro, or any other forested, middle-elevation site and you will probably hear them each and every morning. Although it’s always nice to hear those tail-wagging, blue-orbitaled skulkers, it’s also a bittersweet sound [...]
Continue reading about Where to See Honeycreepers and Dacnises when Birding Costa Rica
The new year is so well underway that it has essentially ceased to be “new”. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to make some sort of birding forecast for Costa Rica in 2012. Don’t worry, there won’t be any predictions about the end of the world based on the Mayan calendar, just some ideas about birds and [...]
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Costa Rica is definitely a hot, tropical country. At 9 degrees latitude, the sun’s rays can burn with the intensity of some vicious alien device. In the humid lowlands, you sweat but just can’t seem to cool off. 80 degrees is the norm, it feels like summer most of the time, and thank goodness for [...]
Continue reading about Birding in Costa Rica at Paraiso de Quetzales
Costa Rica probably hasn’t experienced a good snowfall since the last ice age and even then it was surely limited to the highest peaks. Treeline habitats probably experience frost once in a while but most of the country is consistently warm. The chance of even the tiniest bit of snow further diminishes when global warming [...]
Continue reading about Is It Going to Snow when Birding Costa Rica?
I surpassed the 600 mark in 2011 but still missed a bunch of birds. That’s pretty much par for the course for any Big Year so I had already accepted a certain number of acceptable losses when I started counting birds on January 1st, 2011. Since 894 species have been recorded in Costa Rica, my [...]
Continue reading about Biggest Misses for Birding Costa Rica in 2011
Just two days left until 2011 comes to an end and 2012 is ushered in with fireworks, rivers of spirited drink, and grapes. Well, at least in Latin America there are grapes. You are supposed to eat 12 and then you get good luck for the coming year. I can’t recall if I took part [...]
Continue reading about Highlights from Birding Costa Rica in 2011
