This past weekend was special, especially for birders. Saturday, October 11th was Global Big Day! Yes, we had one in May too but that was Spring migration and, it was on a date that favors birding in the northern temperate zone. To make up for those spring birds that had already flown north and catch major fall migration in other, tropical locales like Costa Rica, eBird has also designated a Global Big Day for October!
Although we love May birding in Costa Rica, October is when we get truly excited about migration. Birds are coming back for the winter, thousands of other birds are passing through, and knowing that rare migrants are possible floats our birding boat. With those tantalizing thoughts in mind, us local birders are eager and pumped for October Global Big day. It might pour down rain but we still go birding, we still celebrate birds and we do it en masse.
This year, since I hadn’t heard much hype about October Big Day, I wondered if fewer people would participate. It took but a brief glance at the results to vanquish any worries. More than 950 birders in Costa Rica submitted lists that turned up a collective and impressive 722 species (including the undescribed Puntarenas Screech-Owl).
That’s a heck of a lot of birds, especially for an area the size of Wales or West Virginia. Here’s some of many highlights and observations:
Organized birding outings
It was nice to see that some hotels and groups had organized birding outings for October Global Big Day. I hope some of those outings brought more people into the birding fold, I suspect they did. I know they saw lots of cool birds and were celebrating October birds at the same time as folks in the Philippines, Tanzania, Colombia, and most other corners of the globe. That right there is one of the things I dig most about any Global Big Day; knowing that thousands of other people are celebrating and enjoying birds at the same time.
Uncommon migrants
We didn’t have too many rare migrants but we birders in Costa Rica did find a few. More than one person had the decidedly uncommon Black-billed Cuckoo, a few Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Tree Swallow (yeah, hard to believe but uncommon here!), Veery, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Blue-winged, Yellow-throated, and Townsend’s Warblers.
If migration hadn’t been backed up, we may have also had a few more uncommon migrants.
Some uncommon resident species found, some missed
Local birders found a good number of uncommon resident species including Bare-necked Umbrellabird, Turquoise Cotinga, Violaceous Quail-Dove, Black-banded Woodcreeper, Leaftossers, antpittas, Red-fronted Parrotlet, and Ochraceous Pewee.
Some of the uncommon and rare species “missed” included Silvery-throated Jay, Great Jacamar, Lanceolated Monklet, and Black-crowned Antpitta among a handful of other birds. No big surprise there, none of these species are easy or common in Costa Rica. Look for them the right way and in the right places and you can find them but they aren’t easy.
Guiding in the Poas area
Usually, I do Global Big Day in intense birding style but this year, I was scheduled to guide a couple of visiting birders. That worked out well because even if I hadn’t been scheduled to guide, I would have been doing some easy-going birding anyways. Having had surgery two and a half weeks before then, I wasn’t really ready for intense Big Day birding.
However, I was well enough to guide in the Poas and Varablanca area; a region with excellent, easy-going roadside birding. Cool and wet weather kept some birds quiet but we still managed seeing and hearing quetzals, Barred Parakeets, Fiery-throated and several other species of hummingbirds, Flame-throated Warbler, Wrenthrush, and other cool highland birds.
All 49 regular occurring hummingbirds
Speaking of hummingbirds, local birders found all regular occurring species including migrant Ruby-throated (nice to know they have arrived), Green-fronted Lancebill, White-tipped Sicklebill, coquettes, and various other species.
All rail species minus a coot
Local birders also did very well with the Rallidae, finding everything from Mangrove Rail to Paint-billed and Yellow-breasted Crakes. The only rail species missing was American Coot! Before you laugh, note that this chalk-billed, duckish bird is an uncommon wintering bird in Costa Rica. I guess they haven’t really arrived yet.
The fact that all the other rails were encountered shows how developed birding in Costa Rica has become. It wasn’t all that long ago that Mangrove Rail was unknown for the country and that Yellow-breasted and Paint-billed Crakes were birding dreams. Now, as long as you know where to find birds in Costa Rica and go with the right guide, you can see them fairly easily.
Most raptors and all 14 owls
Raptors are naturally uncommon in Costa Rica but, as October Global Big Day shows, if you get enough birders out there in enough places, birds get seen. All regular species were seen except for the three rare and challenging ones (Black and white Hawk-Eagle, Red-throated Caracara, and Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon), and the two major megas (Crested and Harpy Eagles). As for Gray-bellied Hawk and Solitary Eagle, the hawk is a very rare migrant and the eagle might not even occur. Maybe, but the fact that it hasn’t been documented, even on Global Big Days is telling. Even so, I still believe we need focused expeditions and searches in the right places to properly assess the status of the biggest black-hawk in Costa Rica.
As for the owls, we did very well, only missing the three main vagrant species (Burrowing, Great Horned, and Short-eared, all of which are crazy mega winter vagrants).
Local birders also saw lots of tanagers, trogons, puffbirds, parrots, antbirds, and that wealth of other tropical birds that helps make Costa Rica a major global birding hotspot. It did rain in many places but that didn’t stop us from finding well over 700 species! Imagine how much you could see with two weeks of birding in Costa Rica?
To get an idea of the types of uncommon birds you can see on a carefully designed itinerary, check out this Hillstar Nature Costa Rica birding tour I helped craft for late March and early April, 2026. They still have spaces available! If you are interested in seeing a Rosy Thrush-Tanager, Ocellated Crake, Black-bellied Hummingbird, Scaled Antpitta, Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager, and lots more, contact me today at information@birdingcraft.com .
I hope to see you here, the birds are waiting!