I didn’t do much birding this weekend. Yes, there was the automatic birding that happens when Crimson-fronted Parakeets exclaim their presence from urban ledges, Clay-colored Thrushes sing outside, and Brown Jays call from a neighboring farm but, I did not specifically venture outside and look for birds. As eBird would say, my birding the past two days has been completely “incidental”.
I’ll tell you what though; I made up for it last weekend (Saturday in particular) and while guiding in the Poas area a few days later. On the 13th, we had 100 plus species while birding cloud and middle elevation forests near Poas Volcano. There were silky-flycatchers, Resplendent Quetzal, Flame-throated Warblers, a glimpsed Nightingale-Wren, eye-catching Swallow-tailed-Kites, and a whole lot more but, even that wealth of birds didn’t compare to the birding bonanza that took place on the 9th of May.
That auspicious day was Global Big Day and, as befits such a bird-focused date, the birding was fierce, nonstop, trying, tiring, and simply glorious. I saw a lot but what makes Global Big Day especially fantastic is knowing that other birders from around the world are likewise focusing on birds; watching and listening and counting and noting and birdbathing in the magnificence of our feathered world.
On May 9th, 2026, those other birders celebrating the avian side of life included 81,000 plus people and although I only ran into a handful, I love knowing that all these other folks are also out there in Nebraska and Oaxaca and Japan and Tanzania and so many other places digging birds too. See some of their stories at the Global Big Day results page, and check out country and world totals at the main Global Big Day page. You’ll notice that, this year, us Global Big Dayers collectively identified more than 8,000 species! Here’s some of what happened in Costa Rica:
Good participation in Costa Rica
Although I only saw a few other birders, according to the Costa Rica results page, more than 1,000 birders were submitting lists on May 9th! That’s fantastic because, as with everywhere, the more birders the better. We also submitted a lot of checklists (more than 3,400), and had some major team results on the international stage.
In looking at the results, it looks like we had birders covering most corners of the country, including one or more pelagic trips off the Pacific Coast. Thanks to those boats, somewhat elusive birds like Christmas Shearwater and Tahiti Petrel made it onto the Costa Rica GBD list.
703 Species
Together, we identified more than 700 species, an excellent total given that a high proportion of migrants have already flown north. Some were still around, principally shorebirds, but overall, most birds on the GBD list are residents.
These included all regularly occurring hummingbird species, all tinamous, most woodcreepers, most cotingas, and so on. Of note were 37 species of diurnal raptors! That’s a good reminder that even though raptors in Costa Rica are generally uncommon, we have an impressive number of species and if you cover enough ground, you’ll end up seeing quite a few. The only regular one missing was the Pearl Kite.
Missing birds
Most of the resident species not recorded read like a typical wish list for folks who have birded Costa Rica on several occasions or, the rarities that tend not to be seen on a birding trip. These included challenging species like Masked Duck, Tawny-faced Quail, Violaceous Quail-Dove, Olive-backed Quail-Dove, White-tailed Nightjar, Buff-collared Nightjar, Ocellated Poorwill, Spot-fronted and White-chinned Swifts, Rufous Nightjar, Lanceolated Monklet, Great Jacamar, Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon, Spot-crowned Antvireo, Scaled and Black-crowned Antpittas, Black-banded and Strong-billed Woodcreepers, Lovely Cotinga, Gray-headed Piprites, and Botteri’s Sparrow.
These species are tough but still regular in the right places. On past GBDs, we’ve recorded all of them by having birders looking for them in key spots. This time, I think we just didn’t have that going on.
That especially rings true for species like Spotted Rail, Mangrove Rail, Brown Booby, Pearl Kite, Middle American and “Puntarenas” Screech-Owls. All of these are fairly expected when birding certain areas or sites (although I do wonder if the two species of screech-owls aren’t vocalizing these days).
The highest total for Costa Rica
It was a long day but I was pleased to get the highest non-team species total for Costa Rica (and one of the top ten totals on the global stage). 283 species in one day also shows how darn birdy Costa Rica is especially considering that we started at midnight (although 2 a.m. was still pretty early), detoured into the Central Valley, and had some breezy and hot conditions that limiting bird song.
As is often the case, some odd birds failed to show in places where I typically record them but, I also had lots of highlights. The rare and unexpected bird experiences included Least Bittern calling once from a brushy wetland near Orotina, hearing Harris’s Hawk call just before dawn, hearing a couple of late lingering Indigo Buntings, and having a few Uniform Crakes call to each other at the end of the day, just before the rains poured down.
Carara also worked out despite being hot and home to way too many cicadas. Back in the more humid part of the forest, the areas with the biggest trees and farthest from the road, I was treated to tough and iffy birds like Piping Long-tailed Woodcreeper, Green Shrike-Vireo, Black-striped Woodcreeper, Baird’s Trogon, and Scaly-throated Leaftosser.
My raptor day was pretty low but lots of other birds showed, especially at and near Carara, and in the Poas area. What’s kind of crazy is that I’m sure I would have identified even more if I had not detoured into the Central Valley and, if conditions were slightly better for bird activity. Not to mention, very few wintering birds were still present, if so, I probably would have broken 300.
It’s also worth mentioning that all these birds also happened while driving an electric vehicle and even stopping to charge it mid-morning (where we picked up Rock Pigeon ta da!). Regarding that, I’ll be writing more in detail about electric vehicles in Costa Rica as well as the Global Big Day experience in other places. In the meantime, I’ll just mention that my GBD, and the Costa Rica GBD totals in general remind again how incredibly birdy Costa Rica is.
To learn more about the Costa Rica birding sites mentioned above, you’ll find lots of information at this blog as well as in my 900 plus page ebook, “How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica“. I hope to see you here!