For bird watching in the tropics, it's better to come from November to April before some 220 migratory species head back to North America, after spending almost 200 days at these tropical latitudes.

Some of the species that we might get to see:

Daylight saving time does not exist in Costa Rica. Days are very much the same length throughout the year, but in more temperate latitudes, time changes and days are longer during some times of the year. So, birds have much longer days to find food and there will be less predation. That is why sexual dimorphism is very strong here in the tropics. (Sexual dimorphism is when male and female of the same species are very different in colors). They migrate to North America from early May to late October and then come back to more tropical latitudes, to spend the winter here. That will be from November to April in most of the migratory species.

Some how in their genetic behavior, they all know the time to leave for their migration and come to the tropics, synchronizing with the highest peak of the insect activities in all these tropical latitudes. They fly into this major ecosystem where more food is available at this time of the year. Most of the migratory species move back to North America at the end of April and early May. Very few species visit us from the southern hemisphere, but coming at different time of the year. Some species include Piratic Flycatcher, Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, also Yellow-green Vireo, the beautiful American Swallow- tailed Kite, Plumbeous Kite, also Peregrine Falcon, and few more.

Some of the reasons why Costa Rica is a bird watching paradise: is due to its geological formation, the geographical position, because it is one of the narrowest points in southern Central America. The country is very suitable for the major ecosystems needed, by the species that live here.

Millions of years ago north and South America were two different continents, separated by the ocean. The southernmost point of Central America, where Costa Rica is located now, was not formed yet; there was nothing but a bunch of volcanic islands and a very shallow ocean between these two big masses of land, not very long ago in geological terms.

During the cretaceous period, Costa Rica together with western Panama and southern Nicaragua, emerged from the ocean floor as a result of tectonic dynamics and high volcanic activity. At the same time that Africa was drifting away from south America, then the southern tip of central America was pushed from the bottom part of the ocean, forming what we call the central American biological bridge.


Connecting for the first time approximately 3 million years ago these two big masses of land known as; North and South America.


In Costa Rica we learn in school that anywhere from Chile to Canada is one single continent that we know as the American continent. But only few million years ago, these two masses of land were totally separate.

Costa Rica is one of the newest formations of the American continent. When it was finally formed, connecting the whole American continent for the first time only few million years ago, there was a number of spices that moved down from north to south and vice versa. At one time these species came through here and stayed in Central America creating what biologists call the biggest genetic exchange on the biggest combination of species on earth, more so than any other tropical latitude on this planet.


Costa Rica is the size of West Virginia with only 20.000 square miles,but it holds about 900 species of birds. This is around 5% of the species that exist in the world. All of these can be found in one of the smallest countries on earth, but with an incredible tropical location. The big deal of traveling to Costa Rica is that you can see many of these birds by driving only a few Km from lowlands to highlands or traveling from the Caribbean slope to the Pacific slope, across the continental divide in very few hours with spectacular scenery.

In Costa Rica there is 10% of endemism, which is about 90 species of birds, that can only be seen in Costa Rica and western Panama and nowhere else. So the size of the country and other factors like geography and topography make this country a bird watching paradise.

The reason of having many birds species known as sister species is due to the fact that thousands of years ago at the very end of the last glaciations when the ice was affecting temperate regions, some of the major ecosystems in the tropics were under the influence of very cold weather. Then some of the most tropical rain forest like the ones in southern Central America and western Panama, somehow became a refuge for rain forest species. Groups of birds moved from cooler areas of the northern hemisphere, coming from temperate regions to more tropical latitudes, like Central America.

As soon as they came and found patches of rain forest, good weather and lots of food, they stayed here until the weather went back to normal. Once in the tropics some members of the same species went to the Caribbean side and some came to the pacific slope. Then, after thousands of years as a result of speciation due to isolation, they evolved as different species. Even though these birds are similar, they are very different species.

So it’s very exciting to see some of these sister species just by going from the Caribbean to the Pacific slope.

White-collared Manakin	Orange-collared Manakin

Barred Antshrike	Cherrie´s Tanager Passerini´s Tanager.	Collared Aracari

Fasciated Antshrike	Fiery Billed Aracari	Lovely Cotinga

So as you can see there are many reasons to come to our country for beautiful bird watching.

Traveling to lodges and hotels is quite beautiful and lots of birds can be seen along the way with many other animals like monkeys, lots of butterflies, coatis and occasionally a wildcat going across the road. To get to some of these places we will drive on good roads most of the time. Occasionally there will be some gravel roads for a few Km, so you will get the real feeling of being in a banana republic but will still have all of the benefits of technology, good food, and all of the other things that travelers enjoy. There are lots of national parks and protected areas representing many different major ecosystems that are a very short distance from each other.

Also along the road there will be places where we could stop at somebody's property to see wonderful birds. We might even have coffee and share very interesting conversation with the owner of the property.

In our tours we stop only at places where bird watching is phenomenal, but there will be lots of other things to do as well. So, for those who like to do other things in between bird watching, we offer lots of different activities.

This is from one of our 8-days trips in December 2007. We went to the Caribbean slope for middle and lowland species, we spent two days at Monteverde for highland species and we stayed at Hotel Villas Lapas in the central Pacific.