After giving some thought to our broader Costa Rica bucket list, D drilled down on his birding objectives for the remainder of our San Jose assignment. We had thought 2022 — our first full year in Costa Rica — had been a banner birding year. Then, last year, D surpassed his wildest dreams, seeing nearly 600 different birds across Costa Rica. With only a few months left at our disposal, D knows he won't reach such lofty heights this year, but he does hope to continue adding new Costa Rican birds to his life list.
After two years and more than 650 species, the list of potential lifers has shrunk appreciably. Taking into account birds D has seen in other places, including multiple trips to Colombia, our recent visit to Belize, and our home patch in the United States, eBird lists only 156 species that have been reported in Costa Rica which D has never seen — three of them endemic to the Cocos Island, which we have no plans to visit. Many of the others are accidental reports or rare visitors, but there are also a decent number of hard-to-find Costa Rican megas that will be D's primary targets during our remaining time in this wonderful country. Here's how the list shakes out.
First, the good news: there are multiple bird families where D has seen all of the species recorded in Costa Rica. During our end-of-year trip around Guanacaste last year, D finally completed his set of Costa Rica's nine trogons, which are some of our favorite birds. D has also seen all six of Costa Rica's motmot species, all six toucans, all eight manakin species, and all six kingfishers. Less flashy bird families where D likewise has seen everything there is to see in Costa Rica include icterids (orioles, blackbirds, caciques), euphonias and chlorophonias, thrushes, swallows, and swifts, among others.
Then there are a number of bird families with a small handful of holdouts. For example, D has seen 48 of Costa Rica's 52 hummingbird species. He's missing the garden and white-tailed emeralds, the rufous-crested coquette, and the blue-tailed hummingbird. Likewise, there are half a dozen warbler species, including most notably the cerulean and Cape May, which D needs in order to complete the full set of Costa Rica's 50 warbler species. Not counting the Cocos flycatcher, D is missing five of the country's 79 flycatcher species. The red-fronted parrotlet — a veritable ghost of a bird — is the only one of Costa Rica's 17 parrot species D has yet to see. Meanwhile, the sedge wren, a couple of sparrows, and — frustratingly — the Costa Rican brushfinch are also preventing D from checking their respective families off his targets list.
Some bird families are notoriously hard to find — especially since D birds by sight only and does not count birds he may have heard. He's seen all of the anis but only three of Costa Rica's nine cuckoo species. Similarly, more than half of the country's nightjars remain unknowns for D. We've done better with owls, though again there are half a dozen species missing from D's life list, including a handful that are fairly common. Surprisingly, at least for us, there are also a hefty number of raptors D has failed to find, including ten of the country's 39 known hawks, eagles, and kites. We have not done any pelagic birding and have not spent a ton of time on the coast. As a result, water birds make up the largest gap in D's list, accounting for more than a third of his remaining targets.
And then there are the birds that have captured D's imagination for one reason or another — the ones that he hopes to see above all others. There's the little tinamou — a species he has heard but not seen, and the only one of Costa Rica's five tinamou species D has not clasped eyes on. There's the lanceolated monklet — a tiny puffbird, and the only member of its family D is missing. There are two antpittas — the black-crowned and the ochre-breasted — as well as a pair of antthrushes. And there are also two cotingas, including the lovely cotinga D dipped on during a recent visit to Rancho Naturalista, where the bird is reported with regularity.
There are other species too D hopes to add to his life list — starting this weekend, when he and a couple of local birders plan to hit up several hotspots in Cartago Province.
Pictured from top to bottom, some of our favorite bird photos from 2023: northern emerald-toucanet, Baird's trogon, spotted wood-quail, American pygmy kingfisher, king vulture, crested caracara.
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