Costa Rica Birds Diversity: Exploring the Avian Beauty
The birds of Costa Rica offer a fascinating glimpse into the incredible diversity and beauty of the country’s avian population. With over 900 species calling Costa Rica home, it is no wonder that birdwatching has become a popular activity among locals and tourists alike. From the striking Toucans with their vibrant beaks to the majestic Scarlet Macaws soaring through the rainforest, these birds showcase both the country’s natural wealth and its commitment to conservation efforts.
One aspect that sets the birds of Costa Rica apart is their intelligence and adaptability. Many species have demonstrated impressive problem-solving skills, memory capabilities, and social behaviors. For instance, the White-throated Magpie-Jays are known to use cooperative hunting strategies, communicating effectively to corner their prey. The highly intelligent Green Violetear Hummingbirds have been observed navigating tricky flower patches, remembering the location of the richest nectar sources. These displays of understanding and comprehension show that birds in Costa Rica possess cognitive abilities that make them worthy of admiration and study.
The birds of Costa Rica not only contribute to the country’s vibrant ecosystems but also offer valuable insights into the intelligence and complexity of avian species.
Howler features these beautiful creatures in this edition. Discover the Boobies, Scarlet Macaws, and the Pallas’ Long-tongued bat article. We’ve included a few pages of some of the most captivating photographs with links to the related story.
Acadian Flycatcher
Acorn Woodpecker
Agami Heron
Alder Flycatcher
Amazon Kingfisher
American Avocet
American Bittern
American Coot
American Dipper
American Golden-Plover
American Kestrel
American Oystercatcher
American Pipit
American Pygmy Kingfisher
American White Pelican
American Wigeon
Anhinga
Aplomado falcon
Artic tern
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Audubon’s shearwater
Azure-hooded Jay
Baird´s Sandpiper
Baird´s Trogon
Band-backed Wren
Band-Rumped Storm-Petrel
Band-Rumped Swift
Band-tailed Barbthroat
Band-tailed Pigeon
Banded Wren
Bank Swallow
Bare-crowned Antbird
Bare-necked Umbrellabird
Bare-shanked Screech Owl
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Barn Swallow
Barn-Owl
Barred Antshrike
Barred Becard
Barred Forest Falcon
Barred Hawk
Barred Parakeet
Bat Falcon
Bay Wren
Belted Kingfisher
Bicolored Antbird
Bicolored Hawk
Black Guan
Black Hawk-Eagle
Black Noody
Black Phoebe
Black rail
Black Skimmer
Black Storm-Petrel
Black Swift
Black Tern
Black Vulture
Black-and-white Becard
Black-and-white Hawk Eagle
Black-and-white Owl
Black-and-yellow Silky-Flycatcher
Black-banded Woodcreeper
Black-bellied Hummingbird
Black-bellied Plover
Black-bellied Whistling-duck
Black-bellied Wren
Black-billed Cuckoo
Black-billed Nightingale-Thrush
Black-breasted Wood-Quail
Black-capped Flycatcher
Black-capped petrel
Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant
Black-cheeked Woodpecker
Black-chested Jay
Black-collared Hawk
Black-crested Coquette
Black-crowned Antpitta
Black-crowned Antshrike
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Black-crowned Tityra
Black-eared Wood-Quail
Black-faced Antthrush
Black-faced Solitaire
Black-headed Antthrush
Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush
Black-headed Tody Flycatcher
Black-headed Trogon
Black-hooded Antshrike
Black-legged Kittiwake
Black-necked Stilt
Black-striped Woodcreeper
Black-throated Trogon
Black-throated Wren
Black-vented shearwater
Black-whiskered Vireo
Blakc-tailed Flycatcher
Blue Ground-Dove
Blue Seedeater
Blue-and-white Swallow
Blue-chested Hummingbird
Blue-crowned Manakin
Blue-footed Booby
Blue-headed Parrot
Blue-headed Vireo
Blue-tailed Hummingbird
Blue-throated Goldentail
Blue-Winged Teal
Boat-billed Flycatcher
Boat-billed Heron
Bonaparte’s gull
Bran-colored Flycatcher
Bridled Tern
Bright-rumped Attila
Broad-billed Motmot
Broad-winged Hawk
Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer
Bronzy Hermit
Brown Booby
Brown Jay
Brown Noody
Brown Pelican
Brown Violetear
Brown-billed Scythebill
Brown-capped Tyrannulet
Brown-capped Vireo
Brown-chested Martin
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Brown-hooded Parrot
Brown-throated Parakeet
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaner
Buff-fronted Quail-Dove
Buff-throated Foliage-gleaner
Buffy Tuftedcheek
Buffy-crowned Wood-Partridge
Burrowing Owl
Cabani’s Wren
California gull
Canebrake Wren
Canivet’s Emerald
Canvasback
Caspian Tern
Cattle Egret
Cave Swallow
Cedar Waxwing
Central American Pygmy-Owl
Charming Hummingbird
Checker-throated Antwren
Chestnut-backed Antbird
Chestnut-collared Swift
Chestnut-colored Woodpecker
Chimney Swift
Chiriqui Foliage-gleaner
Chiriqui Quail-Dove
Christmas shearwater
Chuck-will´s-widow
Cinnamon Becard
Cinnamon Hummingbird
Cinnamon Teal
Cinnamon Woodpecker
Clay-colored Thrush
Cliff Swallow
Cocoa Woodcreeper
Cocos Cuckoo
Cocos Flycatcher
Collared Aracari
Collared Forest-Falcon
Collared Plover
Collared Trogon
Comb duck
Common black hawk
Common Gallinule
Common Ground-Dove
Common Nighthawk
Common Pauraque
Common Potoo
Common Tern
Common Tody Flycatcher
Cooper´s Hawk
Coppery-headed Emerald
Cory’s shearwater
Costa Rican Pygmy Owl
Costa Rican Swift
Crane hawk
Creasted Eagle
Crested Bobwhite
Crested Caracara
Crested Guan
Crested Owl
Crimson-fronted Parakeet
Crowned Woodnymph
Curlew Sandpiper
Dark Pewee
Dot-winged Antwren
Double-striped Thick Knee
Double-toothed Kite
Dull-mantled Antbird
Dunlin
Dusky Antbird
Dusky Nightjar
Dusky-capped Flycatcher
Eared Dove
Eared Grebe
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern whip-poor-will
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Elegant Tern
Elegant Trogon
Emerald Toucanet
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Eye-ringed Flatbill
Fasciated Antshrike
Fasciated Tiger-Heron
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
Fiery-billed Aracari
Fiery-throated Hummingbird
Fork-Tailed Flycatcher
Forster´s Tern
Franklin´s Gull
Fulvous Whistling-duck
Galapagos pretrel
Galapagos shearwater
Garden Emerald
Gartered Trogon
Glossy Ibis
Golden-bellied Flycatcher
Golden-crowned Spadebill
Golden-naped Woodpecker
Golden-olive Woodpecker
Gray Catbird
Gray Gull
Gray Hawk
Gray Kingbird
Gray-bellied Hawk
Gray-breasted Crake
Gray-breasted Martin
Gray-breasted Wood-Wren
Gray-capped Flycatcher
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Gray-Chested Dove
Gray-headed Chachalaca
Gray-Headed Dove
Gray-headed Kite
Gray-headed Piprites
Gray-hooded gull
Gray-lined Hawk
Gray-necked Wood-Rail
Gray-rumped Swift
Gray-throated Leaftosser
Great Antshrike
Great Black-backed Gull
Great Black-Hawk
Great Blue Heron
Great Crested Flycatcher
Great Curassow
Great Egret
Great Frigatebird
Great Green Macaw
Great Horned Owl
Great Jacamar
Great Kiskadee
Great Potoo
Great shearwater
Great Swallow-Tailed swift
Great Tinamou
Greater Ani
Greater Scaup
Greater Yellowlegs
Green Hermit
Green heron
Green Ibis
Green Kingfisher
Green Shrike-Vireo
Green Thorntail
Green-and-rufous Kingfisher
Green-breasted Mango
Green-crowned Brilliant
Green-fronted Lancebill
Green-winged Teal
Greenish Elaenia
Groove-billed Ani
Gull-billed Tern
Hairy Woodpecker
Harpy Eagle
Harri’s hawk
Heermann’s gull
Herring Gull
Highland Tinamou
Hoffmann´s Woodpecker
Hooded Merganser
Hook-billed Kite
House Sparrow
House Wren
Hudsonian Godwit
Inca Dove
Inca tern
Isthmian Wren
Ivory-billed Woodcreeper
Jabiru
Keel-billed Motmot
Keel-billed Toucan
Kelp gull
Killdeer
King Vulture
Lance-tailed Manakin
Lanceolated Monklet
Large-billed Tern
Lattice-tailed Trogon
Laughing Falcon
Laughing Gull
Leach’s Storm-Petrel
Least Bittern
Least Flycatcher
Least grebe
Least sandpiper
Least Storm-Petrel
Least Tern
Lesser Elaenia
Lesser Greenlet
Lesser Ground-Cuckoo
Lesser Nighthawk
Lesser Scaup
Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift
Lesser Violetear
Lesser Yellow-headed Volture
Lesser Yellowlegs
Lesson’s Motmot
Limpkin
Lineated Foliage-gleaner
Lineated Woodpecker
Little Blue Heron
Little Tinamou
Long-bille Dowitcher
Long-billed Curlew
Long-billed Gnatwren
Long-billed Hermit
Long-billed Starthroat
Long-tailed Jaeger
Long-tailed Manakin
Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher
Long-tailed Tyrant
Long-tailed Woodcreeper
Lovely Cotinga
Magenta-throated Woodstar
Magnificent Frigatebird
Maguari stork
Mallard
Mangrove Black-Hawk
Mangrove Cuckoo
Mangrove Hummingbird
Mangrove rail
Mangrove Swallow
Mangrove vireo
Manx shearwater
Marbled Godwit
Marbled Wood-Quail
Markham’s Storm-Petrel
Maroon-chested Ground-Dove
Masked Booby
Masked Duck
Masked Tityra
Mealy Parrot
Merlin
Mississippi Kite
Mottled Owl
Mountain Elaenia
Mountain Thrush
Mourning Dove
Mouse-colored Tyrannulet
Muscovy Duck
Nazca Booby
Neotropic Cormorant
Nightingale Wren
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
Northern Bentbill
Northern Harrier
Northern Jacana
Northern Pintail
Northern Potoo
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Northern Schiffornis
Northern Scrub-Flycatcher
Northern Shoveler
Northern-barred Woodcreeper
Nutting´s Flycatcher
Ocellated Antbird
Ocellated Crake
Ocellated Poorwill
Ochraceous Pewee
Ochraceous Wren
Ochre-bellied Flycatcher
Ochre-breasted Antpitta
Oilbird
Olivaceous Piculet
Olivaceous Woodcreeper
Olive-backed Quail-Dove
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Olive-striped Flycatcher
Olive-throated Parakeet
Orange-bellied Trogon
Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush
Orange-breasted falcon
Orange-chinned Parakeet
Orange-collared Manakin
Orange-fronted Parakeet
Ornate Hawk-Eagle
Osprey
Pacific Golden-plover
Pacific Screech-Owl
Paint-billed Crake
Pale-billed Woodpecker
Pale-breasted Spinetail
Pale-vented Pigeon
Pale-vented Thrush
Paltry Tyrannulet
Panama Flycatcher
Parasitic Jaeger
Parkinson’s petrel
Pearl Kite
Pectoral Sandpiper
Peregrine Falcon
Peruvian Booby
Pheasant Cuckoo
Philadelphia Vireo
Pied Puffbird
Pied-billed Greeb
Pink-footed shearwater
Pinnated Bittern
Piping plover
Piratic Flycatcher
Plain Antvireo
Plain Chachalaca
Plain Xenops
Plain-breasted Ground-Dove
Plain-brown Woodcreeper
Plain-capped Starthoat
Plumbeous Kite
Pomarine Jaeger
Prong-billed Barbet
Purple Gallinule
Purple Martin
Purple-crown Fairy
Purple-throated Fruitcrow
Purple-throated Mountain-gem
Purplish-backed Quail-Dove
Red Knot
Red Phalarope
Red-billed Pigeon
Red-billed Tropicbird
Red-capped Manakin
Red-crowned Woodpecker
Red-eyed Vireo
Red-faced Spinetail
Red-footed Booby
Red-fronted Parrotlet
Red-headed Barbet
Red-lored Parrot
Red-necked Phalarope
Red-rumped Woodpecker
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Tropicbird
Red-throated Caracara
Reddish Egret
Redhead
Resplendent Quetzal
Ring-billed Gull
Ring-necked duck
Ringed Kingfisher
Riverside Wren
Roadside Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Rock Wren
Rose-throated Becard
Roseate Spoonbill
Roseate tern
Rough-legged Tyrannulet
Royal Flycatcher
Royal Tern
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Ruddy Crake
Ruddy duck
Ruddy Foliage-gleaner
Ruddy Ground-Dove
Ruddy Pigeon
Ruddy Quail-Dove
Ruddy Treerunner
Ruddy Turnstone
Ruddy Woodcreeper
Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush
Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher
Rufescent Tiger-Heron
Ruff
Rufous Motmot
Rufous Mourner
Rufous Nightjar
Rufous Piha
Rufous-and-white Wren
Rufous-breasted Antthrush
Rufous-breasted Wren
Rufous-browed Peppershrike
Rufous-browed Tyrannulet
Rufous-crested Coquette
Rufous-naped Wren
Rufous-necked Wood-rail
Rufous-rumped Antwren
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Rufous-tailed Jacamar
Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo
Rufous-winged Woodpecker
Russet Antshrike
Russet-naped Wood-rail
Rusty-margined Flycatcher
Sabine´s Gull
Sanderling
Sandwich Tern
Sapphire-throated Hummingbird
Savanna hawk
Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant
Scaled Antpitta
Scaled Pigeon
Scaly-breasted Hummingbird
Scaly-breasted Wren
Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner
Scaly-throated Leaftosser
Scarlet Macaw
Scintillant Hummingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Scrub Greenlet
Sedge Wren
Semipalmated Plover
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Semiplumbeous Hawk
Sepia-capped Flycatcher
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Sharpbill
Short-billed Dowitcher
Short-billed Pigeon
Short-eared Owl
Short-tailed Hawk
Short-tailed Nighthawk
Short-tailed Shearwater
Silvery-fronted Tapaculo
Silvery-throated Jay
Slate-headed Tody-Flycatcher
Slaty Antwren
Slaty Spinetail
Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon
Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush
Slaty-breasted Tinamou
Slaty-capped Flycatcher
Slaty-tailed Trogon
Smoky-brown Woodpecker
Smooth-billed Ani
Snail Kite
Snowcap
Snowy Cotinga
Snowy Egret
Snowy Plover
Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
Social Flycatcher
Solitary eagle
Solitary Sandpiper
Song Wren
Sooty Shearwater
Sooty Tern
Sooty Thrush
Sora
South Polar Skua
Southern Beardless-Tyranulet
Southern Lapwing
Southern Rough-winged Swallow
Speckled Mourner
Spectacled Owl
Spot-crowned Antvireo
Spot-crowned Woodcreeper
Spot-fronted Swift
Spotted Antbird
Spotted Barbtail
Spotted Rail
Spotted Sandpiper
Spotted Wood-Quail
Spotted Woodcreeper
Spotted-breasted Wren
Squirrel Cuckoo
Sreak-chested Antpitta
Steely-vented Hummingbird
Stilt Sandpiper
Streak-breasted Treehunter
Streak-crowned Antvireo
Streak-headed Woodcreeper
Streaked Flycatcher
Streaked Xenops
Striated Heron
Stripe-breasted Wren
Stripe-tailed Hummingbird
Striped Cuckoo
Striped Owl
Striped Woodhunter
Striped-throated Hermit
Strong-billed Woodcreeper
Stub-tailed Spadebill
Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher
Sulphur-winged Parakeet
Sunbittern
Sungrebe
Surfbird
Swainson’s hawk
Swainson´s Thrush
Swallow-tailed Gull
Swallow-tailed Kite
Tahiti petrel
Talamanca Hummingbird
Tawny-crested Flycatcher
Tawny-crowned Greenlet
Tawny-faced Gnatwren
Tawny-faced Quail
Tawny-throated Leaftosser
Tawny-winged Woodcreeper
Thicket Antpitta
Thicket Tinamou
Three-wattled Bellbird
Timberline Wren
Tiny Hawk
Tody Motmot
Torrent Tyrannulet
Tree Swallow
Tricolored Heron
Tricolored Munia
Tropical Gnatcather
Tropical Kingbird
Tropical Mockingbird
Tropical Pewee
Tropical Screech-Owl
Tufted Flycatcher
Turkey Vulture
Turquoise Cotinga
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Uniform Crake
Unspotted-Saw-whet Owl
Upland Sandpiper
Vaux’s Swift
Veery
Veraguan Mango
Vermiculated Screech-Owl
Vermilion Flycatcher
Violaceous Quail-Dove
Violet Sabrewing
Violet-green Swallow
Violet-headed Hummingbird
Volcano Hummingbird
Tahiti petrel
Talamanca Hummingbird
Tawny-crested Flycatcher
Tawny-crowned Greenlet
Tawny-faced Gnatwren
Tawny-faced Quail
Tawny-throated Leaftosser
Tawny-winged Woodcreeper
Thicket Antpitta
Thicket Tinamou
Three-wattled Bellbird
Timberline Wren
Tiny Hawk
Tody Motmot
Torrent Tyrannulet
Tree Swallow
Tricolored Heron
Tricolored Munia
Tropical Gnatcather
Tropical Kingbird
Tropical Mockingbird
Tropical Pewee
Tropical Screech-Owl
Tufted Flycatcher
Turkey Vulture
Turquoise Cotinga
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Uniform Crake
Unspotted-Saw-whet Owl
Upland Sandpiper
Vaux’s Swift
Veery
Veraguan Mango
Vermiculated Screech-Owl
Vermilion Flycatcher
Violaceous Quail-Dove
Violet Sabrewing
Violet-green Swallow
Violet-headed Hummingbird
Volcano Hummingbird