
Beach Morning Glory
Creeping stems extending across beach sand.
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Nature Field Guide
Explore wildlife, plants and trees. Learn what to look for and where to find them.
26 profiles

Creeping stems extending across beach sand.
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Beach spider lily has long strap-shaped leaves and striking white flowers.
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This large plover breeds in the far north and uses coasts outside breeding.
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A long bill with a pouch beneath the lower jaw.
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A stocky gray body with a pale belly.
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Small buttonlike fruit heads help identify this coastal tree or shrub.
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A long-legged raptor that often walks on the ground.
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Pale lengthwise stripes make this quick ground lizard worth a careful second look.
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A smooth oval shell and paddle-shaped flippers belong to this ocean traveler.
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A narrow hooked beak and patterned shell help distinguish the hawksbill.
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This large shorebird uses its long downward-curved bill to find crabs and other small animals on coastal flats.
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Laughing Gulls are coastal gulls with dark gray backs and blackish wingtips.
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A dark, leathery back rather than large hard shell plates.
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Frigatebirds use very long wings and a deeply forked tail to soar above tropical coasts.
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An olive or gray-green hard shell.
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Ocypode gaudichaudii is a Pacific ghost crab associated with sandy beaches.
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Coenobita compressus is a land hermit crab whose adult life is spent on land near the coast.
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Red button ginger is a native coastal plant especially associated with Costa Rica's Caribbean shore.
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The Royal Tern is a large pale coastal tern with a substantial orange bill and ragged dark crest.
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A Ruddy Turnstone uses a short sturdy bill to flip small objects and search for hidden invertebrates.
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Sea grape is a coastal shrub or small tree with broad rounded leaves.
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This small plover usually searches open flats with short runs and pauses.
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Spotted Sandpipers often bob their tails while walking along water edges.
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Tropical almond is introduced to Costa Rica and is now familiar along many beaches.
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Western Sandpipers are tiny migratory shorebirds that feed on tidal flats.
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A Willet has a sturdy straight bill and long grayish legs.
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