Get Flash Player

bird watching

No other place on Earth is like Costa Rica!

Although Costa Rica is a small country, it is in the bird-rich neotropical region and has a huge number of species for its area. 894 bird species have been recorded in the country (including Cocos Island), more than in all of the United States and Canada combined.

Of those species, seven are endemic and 19 are globally threatened. The Official List of the Asociación Ornitológica de Costa Rica contains 857 species. Over an area of 51,100 km2, an area smaller than West Virginia, this is the greatest density of bird species of any continental American country.

About 600 species are resident, with most of the other regular visitors being winter migrants from North America.

Part of the diversity stems from the wide array of habitats, which include mangrove swamps along the Pacific coast, the wet Caribbean coastal plain in the northeast, dry northern Pacific lowlands, and multiple mountain chains that form the spine of the country and rise as high as 3,500m.

These mountain chains, the largest of which is the Cordillera de Talamanca, form a geographical barrier that has enabled closely related but different species to develop on either side of the chain.

A good example of this speciation is the White-collared Manakin of the Caribbean side, which is now distinct from the Orange-collared Manakin of the Pacific slope.

In the past, higher sea levels left the mountains as highlands, and isolation again led to distinct species developing, with over thirty now endemic to the mountains, especially the Talamanca range which extends from southern Costa Rica into Panama.

Costa Rica's national bird is the Ubiquitous Clay - colored Robin - Yigüirro in Spanish. It was declared national bird of Costa Rica on January 3rd, 1977, as a tribute to its powerful and melodious call that signals the beginning of the rainy season. This bird was chosen especially because it is so familiar to Costa Ricans as it tends to live near people's homes.