Friday, May 6, 2011

Birds of Costa Rica

If there was one animal that everyone should really enjoy and might often take for granted it is the bird. Maybe it is because we have all seen birds at sometime during our lives as they are located in almost every corner of our planet. But when visiting Costa Rica it can be a different experience. Costa Rica is home to over 850 different species of birds which is more than all of North America and Canada combined.

Birds evolved from reptiles around 150 million years ago. It is their ability to fly that makes them the animal you will probably see most of during many ecotourism activities. If you can get excited about birds you will enjoy your trip to Costa Rica. With 850 different species of birds there is much to get excited about because many of these species differ from each other very much in personality, shape, and size.  The Harpy Eagle is a bird of prey that has a wingspan of 6.5 ft and has been known to grab sloths and other small mammals out of trees. This bird is more commonly seen now in Panama and thought to only have one nest in the Osa Peninsula. The toucan, scarlet macaws, and famous Quetzal everyone wants to see for their beautiful colors. But there are other birds out there that many hope to see for their behavior. Just to give you an idea one little manakin species that is found in the Osa Peninsula actually does the Michael Jackson moon-walk for his mate. Our guides have not met anyone on our Costa Rican tours that would pass up the opportunity to see a bird to the moon-walk.

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Some of the birding tours are also not about just seeing the birds but being in and around nature during complete silence and just waiting to see the bird. It is in the waiting process that you can really enjoy the beauty of the tropics as you can just sit and imagine not of the animals you hope to see but how many are seeing you.

We have a long list of birds worth seeing and if you join us on a Costa Rica birding tours we can promise that you will see quite a bit. We can't promise the 850 but we will get close.

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