The bird watching Costa Rica's forests and coastlines offer is unparalleled. With approximately 850 different species of bird, tiny Costa Rica has more variety than Europe, Australia, and North America. It's no wonder that so many people make bird watching part of their Costa Rica travel activities, or the whole reason for coming!
While it's hard to find another place with such abundant bird life and there are patches of forest where the din from bird song is overwhelmingly loud, birding still requires some skill and knowledge.
You should really buy a guide book before you go bird watching in Costa Rica. The following are some recommended guidebooks to help you identify that beautiful or funny looking bird you've spottedhaving a great birding book, your best chance to see rare birds is to hire a bird watching guide or to book a bird watching tour. Trained bilingual guides will be able to spot things you probably would have walked right past.
Also, don't forget to bring an excellent pair of binoculars. The Nikon Monarchs in the link carousel above are waterproof, powerful, and have great customer reviews.
Costa Rica is a bird watching paradise, with diverse ecological zones and six specific ornithological regions. (Ornithology is the study of birds, though you probably already know that. I had to look it up ;-) To get you more excited I've compiled a short list of birds you might see on your travels through this country. I have pictures up for the ones with asterisks, otherwise just do a google image search.
