Guides And Resources

Publications

Bird Field Guides - The 1989 Skutch and Stiles "The Field Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica" (below, far right) was a classic as a tropical field guide, but it is starting to show its age. It has always showed its weight. The new Garrigues and Dean field guide, "The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide" (below, far left) is a lighter, more efficient guide when you're out on the trails. Trying to carry the older Skutch and Stiles guide is like carrying a cord of wood. To be fair, other great field guides for the neotropics are at least as heavy. Few countries, however, have the same tourist industry Costa Rica has. This country can truly use a second field guide. The newer Garrigues and Dean guide has good color plates and, finally, easy-on-your-eyes range maps. It's generally a more user-friendly field guide.

Still, for avid birders, some of the maps of Costa Rica at the front of the Skutch and Stiles guide are important references, and I continue to use them even after 15 trips to Costa Rica. In fact, I have two of the old S&S field guides, so I've cut the maps and plates out of the Skutch and Stiles guide and pack them with the Garrigues field guide.

Bird References

The Birds of Costa Rica by Richard Garrigues

Costa Rica Bird Checklist From Amazon

Finding Birds in Costa Rica Barrett Lawson

A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica by F. Gary Stiles

Bird Checklists - Country-wide bird checklists on the Internet are available, but I prefer the hard copy checklist above (left-center). If this one is out of print, there are a few other web-based and hard copy solutions. One that gets updated frequently is from the Spanish web site Aves de Costa Rica and is a downloadable checklist in excel format (.xls). The actual list itself is in English.

Nearly all regional web-based checklists I've seen of specific Costa Rican parks and refuges were found lacking in some way. Most are overly generic. Several, like the web checklist for Cano Negro, are very poor and are missing several obvious species. It's difficult to find any good web checklists that have information on status and distribution or have even seasonal information. In short, don't rely heavily on any web checklists of parks or refuges. Even some birding lodges have rather poor ones on their websites.

That said, good location-specific web checklists exist for at least four of the important birding areas. The bird checklists for Carara National Park, Rancho Naturalista, La Selva, and Savagre Mountain Lodge can be found at the Costa Rica Gateways site here... Bird Checklists (hat tip to Kevin Easley). Outside of these lists, the pickings are slim for local area checklists.

Finding Birds in Costa Rica - New in November of 2009, is Barrett Lawson's Bird Finding Guide to Costa Rica (right-center). This book is a new site guide to finding Costa Rican bird species by region. Several birding locations in this recent publication have not otherwise received much publicity in print form. There is also a website about the book which is worth a look. This book supersedes all other Costa Rica bird-finding guides of this type which have long since been out-of-date. Although this book would have only marginal use if one is on tour with a group, it has enormous benefits if one is driving a vehicle.

Personalized Services

Guided Birding Tours - Several Costa Rican, Canadian, European, and American tour companies offer trips to Costa Rica. They are generally first rate. Because of Costa Rica's infrastructure, tourism capabilities, and birding guides, Costa Rica is a fairly lucrative destination and some foreign companies offer multiple trips. Museum's and other organizations also tap into this market. Recently, the Costa Ricans themselves have set up very strong competition to American and British tour companies for birding. They are capable of doing this in ways other Central American countries cannot. Mainly, they now have have extremely capable bird guides, a strong tourist infrastructure, a good fleet of vehicles, and a very good understanding of the needs of travelers. I have listed several Costa Rica companies that specialize in tours on the home page.

I cannot rate these companies - primarily because I am not so inclined to group tours. I used to lead tours for a living, but I've never been one to really enjoy visiting a foreign country entirely through a bus windshield. I prefer renting a vehicle or shuttle and managing my own itinerary. Costa Rica is a great place to do that. I wouldn't hesitate to use a tour company, Costa Rican companies included, but it is not my preferred choice of travel.

If you ask at the hotel desk for a bird guide, the hotel receptionist's understanding of a “bird guide” is likely not the same as yours. They are probably thinking "parrots and toucans" while you're thinking "Long-tailed Woodcreeper and Bicolored Antbird". You will likely end up with a natural history guide. Do not expect spur-of-the-moment "nature" guides to be strong bird guides. For a birding guide, do your homework in advance through email. Don't expect to acquire a skilled birding guide on a day's notice.

Should you take advantage of a local natural history guide for a day, you should at least get your money’s worth. Ask them to be on the lookout for interesting mammals (sloths and monkeys) and to point out the more conspicuous plants and trees. But make sure they know your mission is to see the biggest variety of bird life and that this will not be a typical natural history tour. You should not expect full identification of every species by a natural history guide. Only the very specific bird guides have that kind of knowledge.

Abraham Gallo - Bosque del Rio Tigre - Jim Peterson

Personal Guide Services (Birding) - It's possible that Costa Rica has the highest density of qualified bird guides of any country in the world. There are some birding guides that may be available for customized day trips around some of the better-known parks if they are not doing tours at the time. I'm speaking of thoroughly trained professional bird guides and ones who, depending on the trip, will likely show up with a scope and playback system.

On several occasions, I have hired specific, qualified bird guides - once for a day tour at Carara, once for 3 days near Arenal and Heliconias lodge, and again at San Gerardo and Savegre Lodge for target birds. All were well worth the money. One reason birders might consider this is the difficulty of deep-forest birding. A guide becomes more important in this particular habitat. It's a place where birds sounds and play-back are more critical to seeing the bird. A guide will likely know where the manakin lek is or where the antpitta is more likely seen. A few birds like Silvery-throated Jay or Bare-shanked screech-Owl are sometimes easy birds for guides who know in advance where those birds are more likely to be seen.

Two places - Bosque del Rio Tigre and Rancho Naturalista - can budget in their own guided birding package. These lodges have expert guides at the lodge. In my opinion, it's worth it to purchase their services rather than relying on you own skills (unless perhaps you are a bird guide in tropical America).

Rudy Zamora - Bird Guide and Tour Operator In 2009 through a recommendation, we contracted Rudy Zamora - a well-known birding guide in Costa Rica - for some target species at Carara National Park. He is the quintessential birding guide, and I can recommend his services in a heartbeat. He was absolutely focused on my target list, had all the playback tapes, and knew all the locations for the birds I wanted to see. His English is impeccable. If you can afford a day at Carara (or other locations) with a personalized guide, you will likely improve your species list at this location with Rudy.

If you have a target list, Costa Rica Gateways is a company that is known for its service in this regard. This company is tailored for putting together customized tours or providing services on a daily basis where birders are seeking help with specific birds or specific locations. I have used their guides and consider them some of the best qualified guides I have seen in any country.

Another bird guide who has recently started his own company is Herman Venega. Herman was our guide at Rancho Naturalista and is very good. He may be available if his schedule permits.

Patrick O'Donnell - Bird Guide Patrick is the author of the "Costa Rica Living and Birding" blog. He also does birding tours around central Costa Rica and in Carara National Park. His favorite patch of ground is the bird-rich Braulio Carrillo National Park, but he also does tours for high-elevation endemics as well lowland Pacific birding at Carara. Patrick originally hails from New York, but now lives near San Jose. It's easy to get to know Pat since his birding blog is updated frequently and is well worth a visit even if you're just mildly interested in birding Costa Rica. Patrick can be reached at his birding blog web site at http://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/costa-rica-birding-tours/

Other Resources

Bird Identification Challenges in Costa Rica - See my comments here.

Bird Vocalizations - For bird vocalizations of Costa Rican birds, the only good commercial recording I've found is "Voices of Costa Rican Birds, Caribbean Slope". Many places currently show it "currently unavailable" but you should be able to find it somewhere. There is also a nice, compact playback mechanism for the iPod and iTouch called Birdjam. When you purchase a new one, they will pre-load the Costa Rica audio CD for you. For a fuller discussion of the Birdjam, see my section called "Bird Notes."

I have also made my own personalized Costa Rica recordings from Xeno-Canto - a web site of bird calls recorded by amateurs and available for free. Usually, I download very specific birds to my iTouch that I think I'll be hearing on my next trip.

Web Sites - Richard Garrigues Costa Rica Birding Web Site. Definitely worth poking around for several reasons. Richard is the author of the newest bird field guide. There's also a country-wide checklist and some photos of specific birds. I think the "Provincial Overviews" at the bottom of the page are particularly good. Richard Garrigues also has some valuable information about finding birds in Costa Rica which I link here. I personally recommend Richard's web site because of the depth of information. Richard can also be hired as a personal guide. His email is on his web page.

For trip reports on Costa Rica, I recommend Fatbirder. This web site also has the most complete links to Costa Rica birding information, tours, reserves, and places to stay.

New in November of 2009, is Barrett Lawson's Bird Finding Guide to Costa Rica. This book is a new site guide to finding Costa Rican bird species by region. Several places in this recent publication have not otherwise received much publicity in print form. There is also a website about the book.

For birders, I also recommend the "Costa Rica Living and Birding" blog. This is frequently updated, and is good bird reading.

Maps and "Table Top" Books Road Map of Costa Rica Road Map of Provinces Physical Map PDF Mileage Map X-Ray Map Map with Distances   Hummingbirds of Costa Rica by Michael Fogden Photographic Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica by Susan C. L. Fogden