Early January is a great time to go birding in Costa Rica! At times, windy weather can be a challenge but when the wind dies down, the kiskadees call, and the parakeets fly overhead.
Oh, and no freezing weather either. None of the broken windshield ice or other regular January morning chores I used to do in WNY. Here in the tropics, it’s all sun and heat.
Birds know this too; it’s why Baltimore Orioles, Chestnut-sided Warblers, and other migrants call and laugh from the mango trees. They share their temporary tropical space with Social Flycatchers, tanagers, Green-breasted Mangos, and literally hundreds of other bird species.
Like other places, we local birders in Costa Rica are eager to start the year with birds. January 1 is a new year list, another annual trip that can climb to 600, maybe even 700 species. Our trip in 2024 (me and my partner) started with some birding on the 1st but it was almost a false start.
A very strong wind chased all the birds. On a short afternoon walk we were lucky enough to encounter some birds which we did. To make up for it, we went birding the next morning. Read on to hear about our annual birds and how I’m preparing a few other things for high season.
Year Birds for now
To get a real start for 2024 birding, we went on a nearby trip to check out some reservoirs and see what else we could find. Stopovers at prime open habitats, those reservoirs, and patches of dry forest turned out a good array of birds.
Highlights include an American Kestrel, Grasshopper Sparrow, Painted Bunting, and rafts of Lesser Scaup. A great start to another year of birding! View the trip report.
The images that stuck with me were of the little falcon fighting the wind, it’s barred tail bobbing up and down as it landed on the edge of an open field.
The Grasshopper Sparrow is a sharp tick note, dry as the low scrub is perched. The little waif of grasses is an unusual bird in Costa Rica. We were very pleased to lay eyes on it, I wondered where it spent its windswept summer? Far fields in Kansas? The Dakotas?
Painted Bunting is really expected. This beauty is a regular winter bird in the dry habitats of Costa Rica. At Raptor Ridge, it is as common as House Sparrows! This photo is from a wonderful and welcoming place.
It was great to see so many scaups, diving ducks that reminded me of the waterfowl rafts I used to watch on the Niagara River. It’s more speciose in the icy north but waaaay colder too.
Expectations for Birding Braulio Carillo National Park
Soon we will be birding in one of my all-time favorite places. I was birding Quebrada Gonzalez before there was any ranger station, when the trail was muddy and ended in a slippery descent.
Since those days, this birding hotspot has changed quite a bit. The paths are gravel and lifeguards are always present. However, you may not enter during prime birding and some species are not as common as they used to be.
It’s still beautiful, just as exciting to visit as it was in 1992 (well, even more exciting than that first visit!). What will we see? It’s impossible to say, this tropical forest is too complicated to predict but we should see something beautiful, I always do.
I can mention the possibilities. That’s like birds Ornate Hawk-Eagle calling above the forest, Dull-mantled Antbird singing from the stream, peaceful notes of Black-headed Nightingale-thrush coming from the humid understory.
Hopefully, there are tanager flocks, always a chance of a Central American Sharpbill or other rare birds. The best would be army ants, if that happens, we will see a Black crowned Antpittaeven see a Rufous-vented ground-Cuckoo.
There may be a Bushmaster. Well, there are but you rarely see them. It’s rare that I’ve even seen it in 2018.
The Golden-winged Warbler is the ABA Bird of 2024!
It finally happened, one of the coolest little wood warblers was chosen to be the ABA bird of the year! So what does this have to do with Costa Rica?
Well, if you are heading to Costa Rica, you can expect to see this beautiful little bird. Here in Costa Rica, Golden-winged Warblers are easier to see than in other parts of their range. During the winter months, it is common to see one or more on a birding day.
Yes, seriously! Go to the right places and you can expect a Golden-winged experience, even in parts of the Central Valley. See a group of warblers or other mixed flocks in the lowlands? How about a group of birds in the middle elevation? Or even old second growth with lots of hanging dead leaves?
There should be a Golden-winged Warbler or two. Because they forage by probing dead leaves, their predator-watching abilities are limited. This is why you won’t see them far from mixed herds. That dead leaf habit is also why they often grow secondary growth with lots of vines and hanging dead things.
If you think you see a chickadee in Costa Rica, it’s a Golden-winged Warbler! By the way, it’s OK to think you saw a chickadee in Costa Rica. Golden-winged Warblers probably mimic chickadees.
Editing my Bird Finding Book for Costa Rica
Lately, I’ve been editing my Costa Rica bird finding ebook. It needed more edits than I expected and I also took the opportunity to update the book’s Costa Rica bird list.
I’m also including links to eBird hotspots and a few other things to help readers get the most out of their Costa Rica birding experience. It’s not ready yet but I’m almost done, this third version will be available soon!
As a caveat, if you bought the second version and want the updated third version, please let me know. When it’s ready, I’ll send it to you free of charge.
If you haven’t gotten this Costa Rica birding companion ebook yet, check it out. Please consider purchasing this to support this blog while getting the latest birding site guide for Costa Rica.
Cattle Tyrant and Other Updates for the Costa Rica Birding App
As the high season is approaching, we also need to update the Costa Rica Birds Field Guide app. The Cattle Tyrant wasn’t just seen in Texas, in late 2023, our country’s first!
This species has already been included in the app as an expected bird for the country, now we can include it as a spotted bird! At the same time, I may add some additional expected species for Costa Rica and make some other minor edits.
This birding app for Costa Rica will still have photos for more than 900 species and vocalizations for 870 species. Although it is still available for IOS devices, we are working on making this customizable digital field guide available for Android devices as well.
Are you going to Costa Rica for birding? I hope so because check it out, the birding is as incredible as ever. Happy birding, hope to see you here!
