This past Saturday, birders celebrated another October Global Big Day. This is a day dedicated to birding, to be part of a huge birding collective and see how many birds you can find.
You don’t have to do the October Big Day like that, all you have to do is go bird watching and record your eBird lists. However, since the “Big Day” is part of the equation, a birder is forced to do a little more, such as perhaps birding all day, perhaps starting before dawn and continuing into the evening.
Yes, that’s a lot but in Costa Rica, there are so many birds waiting to be seen, it’s hard to resist birding. Keep going and you’ll see more. You get carried away with birding here and you really check yourself before you bird yourself.
On October 12th, over 1,000 birders in Costa Rica did their part. Thanks to many people birding all day and some covering remote parts of the country, we birders in Costa Rica have identified 716 species! My partner Maryllen and I were in that effort, this is how our day went.
A Good Plan but… Times Happen
I can’t help but make plans for the Big Day. There are so many birds concentrated in Costa Rica, making plans to see a large number of them in one day is very easy. There are roads that can take you to quetzals, lots of hummingbirds, macaws, and more, all in one day.
If the birds cooperate, you’ll have a chance to identify hundreds, all in one day. There is always a chance to break a Big Day record, perhaps the biggest World Big Day of all! Those possibilities provide fuel for imagination and the drive to make calculated plans and bring them to fruition.
For this October Big Day, I made a fair plan. It starts with spending the night in the Caribbean lowlands so you can get plenty of rest and start birding at 3am instead of midnight.
You’ll need that break because you’ll be birding non-stop for the rest of the day and part of the next night. You will drive from the Sarapiqui lowlands to Cinchona and Poas and then onwards to the Pacific lowlands for evening shorebirds.
If everything goes well, if most of the birds call at the right time, well, you can only recognize 400 plus species. However, that’s a big “if” because the birds aren’t the only thing that has to go right. Anything that prevents you from birding the right places at the right time throws a wrench in the works. Road issues? Mixed flock elsewhere? Weather not cooperating? Any of those factors will do.
On Saturday, the weather more or less got in the way of the plan but we still had a great morning of birding! In the beginning, the weather was absolutely perfect, at least for birding. Cloudy skies and occasional drizzle kept the birds busy throughout the morning. But, fog and rain are forecast in the afternoon and evening. A weather system was coming and in addition to probably not seeing anything at that time of day, we couldn’t risk potential flooding or landslides preventing us from getting home the next day.
They’re not guaranteed to happen but, with heavy rain, they certainly can and we’re not going to risk it. However, the biggest wrench in the plan occurred earlier, one caused by several heavy rains in the days leading up to October 12th.
The Good Road Turned Bad
I planned on hitting the dawn chorus on a road that runs through the rainforest in the Pueblo Nuevo area. It’s a place where I’ve seen everything from nunbirds to all three hawk-eagles and more. As one of the better places for night birding, it works with those things, too.
At three in the morning, we were out the door and into the dark and silent night. Soon we reached the forest but that’s all we got! The gravel road that I had walked on many times was covered in wet slush, just the kind that would make you slide on the road. We might have done it with a four-wheel drive but even then, I’m not sure.
I was surprised because I had never seen that road in those conditions, even when it was raining. Not birding that road was an early blow to the Big Day plan but I’m just thankful we pulled ourselves together before we got stuck!
At least we can still bird part of the road and hopefully get enough forest species. I figured we could still do well with the night birds.
Night Owls and Thrushes
We listened to the sky from a hill overlooking the swamp and forest. I hope that the voices of the owls will carry, that the potoos will respond. As I got out of the car, the calls of Swainson’s Thrushes filtered from the sky. As we were very lucky, we soon heard a couple of Grey-cheeked Thrushes and a Veery; two unusual species for Costa Rica!
At the same time, the owls also started calling. Not many, but one of each is enough! A pair of Crested Owls called and continued here until dawn, the Middle American Screech hooted, and distant Spectacled and Mottled Owls hooted. Oddly, I didn’t hear the owl I often hear in that area, the Black and White Owl.
Eventually, one of the beautiful owls also called, a quiet sound, as if reluctant to join the October Global Big Day. I also heard hope for the Short-tailed Nighthawk but despite whistling like them, the Uniform Crake and Central American Pygmy-Owl were no shows.
I was also surprised that the believers were silent! I usually hear Great Potoo in that area and we had a Common Potoo near there in March but again, those birds are usually along that road, inside the forest.
The eBird list from pre-dawn birding: eBird Checklist – 12 Oct 2024 – Pueblo Nuevo Lagoon – 14 species .
Good Birding Season = Seasonal Birds
As the sky cleared, I was happy it wasn’t raining and the birds were calling. Cloudy skies stayed with us for the rest of the morning and made for great avian action.
From the same place where we listened for night birds, we recorded most possible parrot species including a pair of Great Green Macaws that flew directly to us. Later, we will see two more missing parrots, one of which is Scarlet Macaw.
The birds made it to the out day list one by one and in quick succession; Olive-crowned Yellowthroat singing from the marsh, a calling Laughing Falcon, Barred Antshrike and dozens of other species.
Unfortunately, I don’t hear enough about the forest species we “need”. Not only are we near intact forest but we might be able to reach that habitat?
We tried a few other roads in the area, the ones I frequent and found deep forest species but those roads turned out bad too! There was no way we could reach the entire lowland rainforest in time for the plan to work. That’s disappointing but at least the birding is good, there’s still plenty to see!
Migration!
October is moving month in Costa Rica and Saturday is a good day for it. From the start, rusting Turkey Vultures graced the trees and we also picked up Mississippi Kites and Broad-winged Hawks awaiting better flight weather.
We quickly found a Great-crested Flycatcher and had lots of Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager, Dickcissel, and other migrants throughout the morning. Eventually, raptors take off and carve the sky with swirling kettles as swallows and Chimney Swifts fly by.
In one of those kettles we had our odd bird of the day, a Magnificent Frigatebird! Although not common, we see frigatebirds flying over the mountains from time to time. This one seemed to be moving with a group of Broad-winged Hawks that also had a single Swainson’s Hawk of the day.
A Good Morning of Birding in Sarapiqui
Overall, it was a great morning of birding in Sarapiqui. That’s not surprising, that place is usually beautiful and birdy. Some of the highlights were an adult Grey-headed Kite perched on the edge of the forest, the aforementioned macaws, Gartered Trogons perched on roadside wires, Bat Falcons, the list goes on…
Oddly enough, one of our best birds is the Yellow-breasted Chat. In Costa Rica, this species in an unusual migrant skulks in dense vegetation. Like some anti-social crake, they are there but good luck finding them!
On the only one of the back roads we were able to drive (a few roads behind Tirimbina), we found ourselves moving through an area of interesting, dense secondary growth. It looks perfect for a chat. I rang its cat-like call not expecting a response but sure enough, someone called back! It still refuses to come out but at least one has vocalized and I know where it might spend the winter.
At some point in the morning, we realized that we would not be able to access the entire lowland rainforest in time for the full birding plan. With that in mind, we slowed down and enjoyed the rest of the morning birding in the Sarapiqui area. Our Global Big Day turned into a Big Morning but we’re not complaining. We’ve seen a lot more! Check out the trip report: October Global Big Day 2024 – eBird Trip Report Hope this gets you ready for your birding trip to Costa Rica!
To learn more about birding around Pueblo Nuevo, Sarapiqui, and hundreds of other sites in Costa Rica, support this blog by purchasing my 900 plus page ebook, “How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica”. Hope to see you here!
