rarefied air

Last year was a banner year for D — the first real Big Year of his life. He logged nearly 750 bird species, 461 of them in Cost Rica. Amazingly, this year is shaping up to be even more special.

Through mid-July, D was about 20 species shy of his pace last year, but this parity obscures an important difference: at this time last year, we had just wrapped up our two-week trip to Colombia, the birdiest country on the so-called Bird Continent. It was our first time birding in Colombia; truth be told, it was our first time birding in South America, a few old bird photos D had snapped in a previous life notwithstanding. We saw 272 different birds in two weeks on that trip, which we had planned intentionally around some of the country’s primary birding hotspots. Nearly 200 were lifers for D.

We returned to Colombia this summer — our final days together without the kids before they return home from their summer vacation with grandparents and cousins in the States. We targeted a different part of the country this year. While we are unlikely to match the birding totals from a year ago when we arrived with a blank slate, there’s ample reason to believe we’ll still see plenty of new species — or at least species we haven’t seen in Costa Rica. Our Colombia getaway fell a couple of weeks later in July this time around, so D’s totals for this year have yet to benefit from the Colombia bump.

Which brings us to this year’s progress and the reason for D’s optimism. The last time he went birding in Costa Rica was in late May on the margins of the Volcanic Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. By the time he entered his last checklist, D had observed 477 species, eclipsing in five months his Costa Rica totals for the entire previous year. This new high-water mark was good enough to land D at #72 on eBird’s Costa Rica Top 100 for the year at the time. Nearly two months have elapsed since, and though D has fallen down the rankings about a dozen notches, he still remains in the Top 100 even though he hasn’t been birding in Costa Rica in nearly two months.

Even as we travel around Colombia, we are busy making travel plans for the rest of the year. The fall migration is around the corner, while the local birds should soon be done hatching their young. The woods will soon be bursting with birdsong again. With our remaining time in Costa Rica ticking down, we’ve made a list of places we still have yet to visit — and D has a list of bird species he still wants to try to find — before our assignment to San Jose comes to an end.

All photos of old favorites, found anew the last few days in Colombia. Pictured from top to bottom: rufous-tailed jacamar; barred antshrike; yellow-headed caracara; red-crowned woodpecker; scaly-breasted wren. While these are relatively common species, the wren photo felt like a small personal victory. We had only ever seen one once before…in a dense thicket that rendered photography impossible.