the coolest birds ever

“So…what are the coolest birds you’ve seen in Costa Rica?” D’s friend, who is not a birder but who quickly cottoned on to the hobby’s appeal, asked on their walk down to the San Gerardo biological station in Monteverde. That outing during Semana Santa, which proved a bit more adventurous than D had bargained for, ended with sightings of two incredibly hard-to-find birds, including one of D’s all-time favorite Costa Rican species. It also got D thinking about his most memorable birding experiences during our two-and-a-half years here. Some of the birds that made this list are truly remarkable mega species; others are not that uncommon, but we saw them under circumstances remarkable enough to fix the experiences in our memory.

1. Bare-necked Umbrellabird: this species has all the makings of a mega. It is endangered, reclusive, uncommonly plumaged, and very rarely seen. Because it usually sits quietly in the shade of the canopy for extended periods, one can easily miss this utterly bizarre cotinga even when one is actively searching for it in appropriate habitat. D has been fortunate to see the umbrellabird twice, including once when birding with a friend on his birthday. D’s first sighting, with the help of a guide, underscores just how remarkable this bird is. D joined five other birders, two of whom were guides, on a multi-hour trek through a muddy jungle to try to find the umbrellabird, but the group came away empty-handed. The lead guide offered the group another pass. Exhausted, everyone declined…everyone except D, that is. Five minutes into their second loop along the same trails, D and the guide happened upon a mixed-species flock and started calling out birds to each other. D had just drawn the guide’s attention to a small songbird when the latter drew in his breath and whispered, “there’s the umbrella!” — the bird was perched silently a mere foot from where D had spotted the smaller bird, completely indifferent to all the commotion the flock was making around it.

2. Ornate hawk-eagle: “uncommon and spectacular,” according to eBird, this near-threatened crested eagle is such a treat to see that a colleague flew to Belize last year for a glimpse after learning that a nesting pair had been found at a famous birding lodge. The first time D saw this bird, it was during a flyover so fast that he only realized what he had seen when he checked the blurry photos he had managed. The second time, however, D lucked into an ornate hawk-eagle perched low inside the forest canopy. D’s birding buddy — a local guide with nearly three decades of experience — was at a loss for words, eventually managing to say that this had been his most incredible sighting of this rare bird ever and that he was sure he’d never experience anything like it again. Incredibly, D lucked into another perched hawk-eagle on that Monteverde walk with his visiting friend just a couple months later.

3. Barred forest-falcon: D spotted this “retiring and rarely seen raptor” on his birthday during his first solo visit to Braulio Carrillo National Park about a year into our Costa Rica tour. It remains his only sighting of this reclusive species. That outing was also memorable because D saw a pair of streak-chested antpittas minutes before finding the forest-falcon. Any birding outing with a clear antpitta sighting deserves a gold star. It’s a testament to how unique the forest-falcon sighting was that it rendered the antpittas an afterthought.

4. Three-wattled Bellbird: with a patchy distribution only in Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras, the male of this vulnerable cotinga species is a sight to behold. Between February and April, this bird is actually quite easy to find in Monteverde, where the cloud forest resounds with its bizarre, sonorous song. Our first bellbird sighting last year was rendered all the more special because that morning we also saw a resplendent quetzal, which perched just for us deep in the woods of the Santa Elena Reserve. After jockeying for position with dozens of other tourists eager for a glimpse of the resplendent quetzal in San Gerardo de Dota, having one an arm’s length away and all to ourselves was a real treat.

5. Spectacled Owl: listed as “uncommon” in eBird, this owl is actually one of the easier ones to see in Costa Rica. D has seen spectacled owls on half a dozen different occasions, including during the aforementioned jungle trek to find the umbrellabird. He chose this particular owl species over the even more reclusive ones he’s seen because it was among the very first birds we saw in Costa Rica. We had just arrived in country, and our neighbor and good friend had invited us on a short hike our very first weekend in San Jose. D hadn’t even bothered to bring his birding gear and regretted the oversight when a spectacled owl swooped off its perch in the canopy and flew right in front of us in broad daylight. Remarkable — and remarkably pretty bird!

6. Ocellated Crake: another bird that is “extremely difficult to see,” according to eBird. Finding this tiny rail required outsize effort, including a visit to indigenous Bribri land and the construction of an ingenious blind in the middle of a dense field of shockingly tall grass. It was also the cherry on top of a stellar birding day that included our only sightings to date of the incredibly beautiful rosy thrush-tanager and green shrike-vireo.

7. Slaty-breasted Tinamou: much like antpittas, tinamous are veritable ghosts of the forest understory. This particular species is vulnerable and incredibly furtive. D felt incredibly fortunate to stumble upon one on a trail just outside Braulio Carrillo very early one morning. Later during that walk, D came across an ant swarm deep in the woods — a veritable goldmine for forest birding. Among dozens of more commonplace species, he also saw an ocellated antbird that morning, which would have been the undeniable highlight of the outing had he not spotted the tinamou first.

8. Agami Heron: herons rarely come to mind when one lists birds of transcendent beauty, but the agami heron is the exception that proves the rule. Near threatened, reclusive, and rarely seen, this heron is found only along quiet lowland forest streams and among mangroves. We were on a boat tour with our kids when we finally found an agami heron at the end of a long day in Caño Negro. A bird of otherworldly beauty, its apparition literally caused everyone in the boat to draw in their breath and hold it. Even our kids managed to sit still for an extended period of time despite the fact that they had grown bored with the birding outing much earlier. On our way out of the narrow channel where we found the agami, we also came across a green-and-rufous kingfisher — D’s only sighting to date of this inconspicuous bird completed his set of Costa Rica’s six kingfisher species.

9. Sunbittern: described by eBird as “one of the world’s most dazzling birds,” this heronlike bird looks rather dull until it fans out its wings, treating the lucky birder to an improbable kaleidoscope of colors. We’ve been fortunate to see many sunbitterns during our couple of years in Costa Rica, including — most recently — during our rafting descent of the Pacuare River, during which we saw no fewer than half a dozen individuals.

10. Turquoise-browed Motmot + Long-tailed Manakin: these two fairly common, but uncommonly spectacular species round out our Top Ten because our first sighting of both occurred minutes apart during a walk that sparked S’s interest in birding. For much of the previous decade, S had been a mostly ambivalent participant in D’s birding quests, appreciating the colorful species but not sharing in D’s excitement of every new find. We were staying in Rio Perdido to celebrate S’s birthday and, since birding was low down on S’s list of priorities for the weekend, D had left his birding gear behind when we headed out on a short walk. First we came across a pair of trogons, then several lekking manakins, at the sight of which S insisted D run back to get his camera. By the time we happened upon the motmot, S’s appreciation for birding had undergone a profound transformation.

11. Tanagers at El Copal: no Costa Rica bird list would be complete without a mention of at least one of the country’s fifty tanager species. Because there are so many remarkably colorful birds to choose from, however, picking just one bird to highlight is nearly impossible. Of all the tanager sightings we’ve enjoyed over two-and-a-half years in Costa Rica, none holds a candle to the mobs of tanagers D saw recently at El Copal, a small, private reserve near Tapanti National Park where D also saw the ornate hawk-eagle and a sharpbill — another of the country’s most unique birds.

12. ??? — Long as this list has grown, it is not exhaustive. Just a couple of weeks ago, D headed out on his first-ever pelagic birding expedition, which yielded several memorable sightings. We’re almost, but not quite fully done with our Costa Rica assignment. With just about one month left, D is planning a final hurrah — a week-long trip taking in several of his favorite birding hotspots. Perhaps there’s time for one more truly remarkable species to add to this list.