Costa Rican Birding

Teel Biled Toucan

It is always a sad time every spring when I reluctantly take down

Montezuma Oropendola

the bird feeders. I know that the birds will find plenty to eat among the newly exposed grass, and I understand the importance of avoiding attracting the newly awakened and ravenous bears, but I will miss the flocks of energetic Chickadees, sparrows, Titmice Woodpeckers and more that entertained us on our deck. It is a good time to embrace memories of the green and warmth of our tour of Costa Rica in January. it was an active two weeks traveling from the topical rain forest along the Caribbean Coast, through the coffee plantations and cloud forest of the central mountains, to the warm sands of the Pacific Coast. It was an active and exciting trip including white water rafting and zip lining through the topical forest, but the major focus was on the remarkable diversity of wildlife and especially the birds.

　

Great Egret, Tortuguero

I always insist that I am NOT a bird photographer, but I keep placing myself in situations where the birding is unavoidable. Trips to Alaska and especially the Galapagos Islands have forced these feathery creature in front of my lens. When unavoidable, I do enjoy capturing these amazing creatures, but Costa Rica was an entirely new level of birding exposure. For a small country, Costa Rica has a remarkable concentration of wildlife diversity. Veronica, a fellow traveler on the tour and a devote and knowledgeable birder, recorded more than 70 new species during our two weeks in the rain and cloud forests, and along both Pacific and Caribbean coasts .

 

　

Blue-Grey Tanager, Serapiqui

 
During two long layovers on our way home, Veronica patiently reviewed all my 3000+ images from the trip, identifying the birds, while I entered the names into my Lightroom Metadata. She saved me hours of time wading through my Costa Rican wildlife guides.

　

Little Blue Heron

 

What follows is a gallery of just some of Central America's feathery fauna. Hopefully it will encourage some of you to tour Costa Rica's amazing environments, but I also assembled this article as a way of refreshing my own memory. I hate when I have to describe these majestic animals as: "pretty red bird", "pretty blue bird", ".... etc".







Tortuguero

Tortuguero is along Costa Rica's Caribbean Coast and next to a large tropical Rainforest preserve.  On hikes and boat trips through the forest we had our first intense exposure to the diverse wildlife of the region, especially the birds.






Female Anhinga

Male Anhinga 
















Jacana

Juvenile Black Hawk

 

Chestnut Mandibled Toucan

Bare Throated Tiger Heron

Yellow Crown Night Heron

Green Kingfisher












 

 
Sarapiqui

Located on the Sarapiqui River the Sarpiqui Lodge was a great place for white water rafting and touring a Banana Plantation, but it was also rich with rainforest birds.





Red legged HoneyCreeper

Green Honeycreeper

Collared Aracari

 San Gerado

Sangerado Valley Mist

The Chirio Valley in the central  highlands of the Talamanca Mountain Range of Costa Rica is an isolated area of pristine cloud forest with its own ecosystem and unusual birds including the famous Resplendent Quetzal. 

Black Throated Trogon

 

Tail  on the Blue-Crowned Motmot



Distant Resplendent Quetzil




Thanks to Veronica I guess I am now an official Birder.

Costa Rica Gallery

Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com