Birds

Acorn Woodpecker

A striking woodpecker linked to oak woodland and acorn food stores.

Birds · Coastal Birds · Wetland Birds

Anhinga

Anhingas swim underwater after fish and use straight pointed bills to seize prey.

Baltimore Oriole

An orange-and-black seasonal visitor from the north.

Bare-necked Umbrellabird

An elusive forest bird with a striking crest and important seed-dispersal role.

Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

This robust tropical heron uses mangroves and freshwater wetlands.

Black Guan

A dark mountain-forest bird with a blue face and red eyes.

Black Vulture

A dark scavenger with white patches under the wingtips.

Black-bellied Plover

This large plover breeds in the far north and uses coasts outside breeding.

Black-crowned Night-Heron

A compact heron whose feeding day often begins at dusk.

Black-faced Solitaire

A cloud-forest singer often heard before it is seen.

Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilts have exceptionally long pink legs, a thin straight dark bill and contrasting black-and-white plumage.

Blue-gray Tanager

A powder-blue bird of gardens and wooded clearings.

Boat-billed Heron

The Boat-billed Heron has an unusually wide flattened bill and large dark eyes.

Brown Pelican

A long bill with a pouch beneath the lower jaw.

Clay-colored Thrush

A familiar brown songbird and Costa Rica’s national bird.

Cocos Booby

Cocos Boobies are eastern Pacific seabirds formerly included with Brown Booby.

Collared Aracari

A small toucan with a patterned yellow chest.

Common Squirrel-Cuckoo

A rusty forest cuckoo with an exceptionally long tail.

Coppery-headed Emerald

A tiny hummingbird found naturally only in Costa Rica.

Crested Caracara

A long-legged raptor that often walks on the ground.

Fulvous Whistling-Duck

A warm-brown duck with a long neck and a whistling voice.

Great Blue Heron

This large heron searches shallow water for fish and other small animals.

Great Curassow

A large forest bird with a curled crest and contrasting male and female plumage.

Great Egret

The Great Egret is a large white wading bird that hunts by waiting or walking slowly in shallow water.

Great Green Macaw

A green forest giant whose future depends on large nesting trees.

Great Kiskadee

A loud flycatcher with a yellow belly and striped head.

Great Tinamou

A camouflaged forest-floor bird with a far-carrying whistle.

Green Heron

The Green Heron is a compact hunter with a dark greenish back, chestnut neck and a short crest.

Groove-billed Ani

A social black bird with grooves on its heavy bill.

Hoffmann's Woodpecker

A black-and-white woodpecker with a yellow nape.

Hudsonian Whimbrel

This large shorebird uses its long downward-curved bill to find crabs and other small animals on coastal flats.

Jabiru

A towering white wetland bird with a dark head and red neck band.

Keel-billed Toucan

A rainbow-colored bill stands out against dark plumage and a yellow throat.

Laughing Falcon

A masked falcon named for its far-carrying call.

Laughing Gull

Laughing Gulls are coastal gulls with dark gray backs and blackish wingtips.

Lesson's Motmot

A colorful forest bird with a blue crown and long tail.

Little Blue Heron

Adults have slate-blue bodies and purplish heads and necks.

Long-tailed Manakin

A small forest bird famous for coordinated courtship displays.

Magnificent Frigatebird

Frigatebirds use very long wings and a deeply forked tail to soar above tropical coasts.

Montezuma Oropendola

A large chestnut bird with a yellow-sided tail.

Birds · Coastal Birds · Wetland Birds

Neotropic Cormorant

This dark waterbird catches fish by diving and swimming underwater.

Orange-fronted Parakeet

An agile green parakeet with an orange forehead and long pointed tail.

Birds · Coastal Birds · Coastal Raptors · Raptors

Osprey

The Osprey is a large raptor that catches fish with its feet.

Red-legged Honeycreeper

A small bird with red feet and a slender curved bill.

Resplendent Quetzal

A cloud-forest fruit eater with brilliant green plumage.

Roadside Hawk

A compact hawk often seen near woodland edges.

Roseate Spoonbill

A pink wading bird that sweeps a spoon-shaped bill through shallow water.

Royal Tern

The Royal Tern is a large pale coastal tern with a substantial orange bill and ragged dark crest.

Ruddy Turnstone

A Ruddy Turnstone uses a short sturdy bill to flip small objects and search for hidden invertebrates.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

A green hummingbird with a rusty tail.

Scarlet Macaw

Red, yellow and blue wings brighten Costa Rica’s Pacific forests.

Scarlet-rumped Tanager

A tanager whose male has a brilliant scarlet rump.

Semipalmated Plover

This small plover usually searches open flats with short runs and pauses.

Snowy Egret

This slender white egret often feeds actively in shallow coastal water.

Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpipers often bob their tails while walking along water edges.

Summer Tanager

A seasonal tanager whose adult male is red all over.

Sunbittern

A streamside bird whose patterned wings reveal a hidden surprise.

Three-wattled Bellbird

Listen for a remarkable call high above the cloud-forest trail.

Tricolored Heron

A white belly and pale stripe along the front of the neck distinguish this slender heron from the uniformly dark adult Little Blue Heron.

Tropical Kingbird

A yellow-bellied flycatcher often seen on an open perch.

Turkey Vulture

A soaring scavenger with a red adult head.

Turquoise-browed Motmot

A turquoise eyebrow and racket-shaped tail make this bird memorable.

Violet Sabrewing

A large hummingbird with violet plumage and white tail corners.

Western Sandpiper

Western Sandpipers are tiny migratory shorebirds that feed on tidal flats.

White Hawk

A pale forest raptor that watches patiently for prey.

White Ibis

A long, downward-curving bill.

White-necked Jacobin

A hummingbird with a blue hood and a mostly white tail.

White-throated Magpie-Jay

A sociable jay with a sweeping blue tail and curled crest.

Willet

A Willet has a sturdy straight bill and long grayish legs.

Birds · Coastal Birds · Wetland Birds

Wood Stork

The Wood Stork is a large white wader with black flight feathers and a mostly bare dark adult head.

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

This sturdy heron often hunts crabs and other crustaceans around coastal wetlands.

Yellow-throated Toucan

A large toucan with a yellow throat and chestnut-toned bill.