Birds of Costa Rica: The Most Unique and Where to See Them

Birds in Costa Rica are impossible to miss, with over 800 species throughout the country. Whether you’re a total beginner or you’ve got a life list going, this is one of the best places on earth to spot some incredible birds.

Since moving to Costa Rica, Thomas has become somewhat obsessed with bird watching. Truthfully, it drives me a little crazy sometimes, because he’s also our main camera person for the website. We’ll take a whole trip specifically to shoot content, and I’ll go through the photos afterward like, “okay, did we get anything for the actual article?” All the photos are often just… birds. All birds. But hey, it’s nice that he has a hobby. And, all those photos are coming in handy for this article. Thanks Thomas!

This guide covers some of the most common and beautiful birds you’re likely to spot while traveling around Costa Rica, plus where to find them and how to actually book a guided bird watching tour if you want to see more than you would on your own (trust me, a good guide changes everything).

Just a heads up, this is only a small slice of the birds you’ll encounter here. We’re highlighting the ones you’re most likely to get excited about spotting.

Hummingbirds

There are over 50 hummingbird species in Costa Rica, and you can spot them buzzing around pretty much anywhere in the country. A lot of nature parks and lodges put up hummingbird feeders just to attract them, which are awesome for up-close photos.

We get little hummingbird visitors in our own garden almost every day. It never gets old.

Behavior:

• You can usually spot a hummingbird by the way it seems to hover in mid-air. That’s from its wings flapping incredibly fast, which is also what creates the humming sound.
• Their diet is a mix of insects (for protein) and nectar (for energy).
• Some species migrate, but plenty of them live in Costa Rica year-round.

Parrots and Maccaws

One of the most recognizable birds in the world. Vibrant colors, big size, unmistakable face.

Varieties: There are believed to be 17 species of parrots and macaws in Costa Rica, with the scarlet macaw, great green macaw, and crimson-fronted parakeet being some of the most common to spot.

Where to see them: The Jaco area is one of our favorite spots. We once watched about ten scarlet macaws having what looked like a full-on get-together in a tree on the beach in Jaco. We only had our phones on us, so the photos unfortunately weren’t great. The Osa Peninsula, especially around Corcovado National Park, is another excellent area to keep your eyes on the treetops.

Behavior:

• Their diet is mostly seeds. Even if you catch one eating fruit, it’s usually just after the seed inside.
• Most parrots are monogamous breeders.
• Most nests are built in dead tree cavities.
• Female parrots handle most of the incubating.
• Many species can imitate human speech and are considered some of the most intelligent birds around.

Toucans

Bright, bold, and honestly my personal favorite bird to spot here. There just so cool looking and feel so typically tropical. As a New England girlie, they are just so unusual for me.

Varieties: Six types of toucans call Costa Rica home: the keel-billed toucan, yellow-eared toucanet, collared aracari, black-mandibled toucan, fiery-billed aracari, and emerald toucanet.

Where to see them: The lower Pacific slope (think Manuel Antonio, Dominical, Uvita), the Monteverde cloud forest, and Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast are all solid bets. We had a pair of collared aracaris visit our hotel balcony every single day during a stay in Manuel Antonio, which was a pretty magical way to start our mornings.

Behavior:

• Toucans are social birds, often gathering in groups of 10 to 20.
• Mostly fruit eaters, though they’ll go after small insects if fruit is scarce.
• They’ve also been known to raid smaller birds’ nests for eggs.

Resplendent Quetzal

Thomas finally got his first Resplendent Quetzal sighting last year in San Gerardo de Dota and I’m pretty sure it was one of his top five Costa Rica moments. They are incredibly rare and difficult to see, so definitely hire a guide if you want to spot one.

Behavior:

• Their diet is heavy in fruit (especially wild avocado) and some insects.
• Males attract mates by singing.
• Females typically lay two eggs per cycle, and both parents take turns incubating over an 18-day period.
• The female often leaves before the chicks are fully raised, and the male takes over from there.

Where to see them: Cloud forest areas like Monteverde and San Gerardo de Dota are your best shot, though they’re never a guaranteed sighting. This is one of those birds worth booking a guide for, since a good local guide knows the exact trees the quetzals are feeding in that week.

Trogons

The quetzal is technically a type of trogon, but it’s famous enough to get its own section above.

Varieties: Costa Rica is home to ten trogon species. Beyond the quetzal, the collared trogon and lattice-tailed trogon are the two most notable.

Behavior:

• Trogons are relatively inactive and pretty reclusive, so they’re not the easiest birds to spot.
• They eat insects like caterpillars, plus fruit.
• They’re monogamous, and males sing to attract mates.
• Nests are carved out of rotting wood.

Where to see them: Both the collared and lattice-tailed trogon are most commonly spotted along the Caribbean coast.

Tanagers

Varieties: Over 50 species of tanagers live in Costa Rica, so I won’t even try to list them all.

Behavior:

• Most live in small groups or pairs.
• Diet is a mix of fruit, nectar, seeds, and insects.
• Not a ton is known about their mating habits, but they nest in trees and typically lay 3 to 5 eggs at a time.

Where to see them: With 50-plus species, you’ll likely spot tanagers just about anywhere in the country if you’re paying attention.

Great Tinamou

Varieties: Five varieties call Costa Rica home: Highland Tinamou, Great Tinamou, Little Tinamou, Thicket Tinamou, and Slate-breasted Tinamou.

Behavior:

• Tinamous spend most of their time on the ground and aren’t great flyers.
• Males attract females with calls and by trying to look larger.
• Most nest directly on the ground, laying eggs on a bed of leaves rather than building an actual nest.
• Diet varies by type but generally includes fruit, seeds, and plants.

Where to see them: They’re spread across the country, but it depends on the variety. The Highland Tinamou favors high-elevation spots like Monteverde, while the Great Tinamou tends to stick to lowland areas. We spotted one at Carara National Park near Jaco once.

Motmots

Varieties: Six species live in Costa Rica: Tody Motmot, Lesson’s Motmot, Rufous Motmot (pictured above), Keel-billed Motmot, Broad-billed Motmot, and Turquoise-browed Motmot.

Behavior:

• Motmots mostly eat small insects and lizards, with the occasional bit of fruit.
• They have two hanging tail feathers that are notoriously fragile and fall off easily.
• Females always lay four eggs, hatching after about 20 days, and both parents care for the young.

Where to see them: They’re found throughout the country but can be tricky to spot. The Turquoise-browed Motmot tends to be the easiest to see, particularly along the Southern Pacific coast.

Best Places for Bird Watching in Costa Rica

If you want to maximize your chances of an incredible day of bird watching, these are the spots we always point people toward:

• San Gerardo de Dota: Our favorite. This cloud forest valley in the Talamanca mountains is home to more than 170 native and migratory species, and it’s the single best place in the country to spot the resplendent quetzal.
• Monteverde: With close to 400-450 bird species recorded, including the quetzal, three-wattled bellbird, and endless varieties of hummingbirds and tanagers, Monteverde’s cloud forest reserves (Curi-Cancha especially) are a birder’s dream.
• La Fortuna / Arenal: The mix of mountains, rivers, lakes, and forest packed into a small area makes this region a genuine hotspot, with toucans, parrots, oropendolas, and tanagers all common sightings.
• Manuel Antonio National Park — Great for birding, though expect more crowds than the other parks on this list.
• Cahuita National Park, Curu Reserve, and Cabo Blanco — All fantastic, quieter national parks for spotting birds.
• Osa Peninsula (Corcovado National Park) — One of the best areas in the country for parrots, macaws, and an incredible diversity of species overall.

In the bigger national parks, it’s usually possible to hire a local guide on the spot. It can be a bit pricey, but these guides know the area’s birds inside and out. Just tell them you’re specifically there for birding and they’ll do everything they can to track down some unique species for you.

Gear to Pack for Bird Watching

Don’t forget to pack binoculars! A lot of these birds are small, far away, or up in the canopy, and without binoculars you’ll spend half your time squinting at a vague shape in a tree. They’re also great to have on hand if you want to do decent wildlife photography, since spotting a bird with binoculars first, then switching to your camera once you know exactly where to aim, saves you a ton of wasted shots.

Here’s what we actually use and recommend:

• Binoculars: We travel with two pairs. A compact, lightweight pocket pair for when we want to pack light, and a bulkier pair with a phone-mount adapter, which lets us take surprisingly good zoomed-in photos straight through the lens with just our phones.
• Camera: If you’re serious about bird photography, you’ll want a camera with a good zoom lens, ideally 300mm or more, since most birds won’t let you get close. Thomas shoots most of our wildlife photos on a mirrorless camera with a telephoto lens for exactly this reason.
• The Merlin Bird ID app: Not gear exactly, but pack it anyway. It’s free, made by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and can identify birds either from a photo or just by listening to their call. We genuinely leave it running in the background during dinner sometimes and it’ll pop up with whatever’s calling outside. It’s a small thing that makes you so much more tuned in to what’s around you.
• A light rain jacket or poncho: A lot of the best birding spots (Monteverde, San Gerardo de Dota) are cloud forest, which means it can drizzle without warning.
• Neutral-colored clothing: Bright colors can spook birds before your guide even gets a chance to spot them.

Bird Watching Tours

A guided tour is honestly the easiest way to see way more birds than you would wandering around on your own. Guides know the exact trails, the exact trees, and can identify a call from a hundred yards away that you’d never even notice. Here are some solid options split out by day trips and multi-day trips.

Day Tours

A guided tour is one of the easiest way to see way more birds than you would wandering around on your own. Guides know the exact trails, the exact trees, and can identify a call from a hundred yards away that you’d never even notice. Here are some solid options split out by day trips and multi-day trips.

Jaco: Jaco Birdwatching and Photography with Sergio — a private, 3-hour tour into Carara National Park with Sergio, a local guide who’s also a photographer and knows how to help you get the shot, not just the sighting. Expect 20 to 40 species in a good morning, including macaws, toucans, motmots, and manakins.

San Jose (Braulio Carrillo): Braulio Carrillo Bird Watching Full Day Pass — a full 9-hour day trip to a private reserve just 45 minutes from San Jose, home to more than 365 recorded bird species. A naturalist guide leads you through primary and secondary rainforest, and you’ll also glide through the canopy on an aerial tram for views of birds you’d never spot from the ground.

Monteverde: Birdwatching Tour in Monteverde — a 5-hour guided walk through the Curi-Cancha Reserve, one of the best spots in the country for the resplendent quetzal, three-wattled bellbird, and dozens of tanager species.

La Fortuna: Bird Watching Tour with Arenal Mundo Aventura — an early, 5:30am start (worth it, this is peak birdsong hour) along the Gallery Habitat Trail, home to 380 species amid small lakes and grasslands.

Uvita: 3-Hour Uvita Bird Watching at Oro Verde — a private 155-hectare reserve on the Southern Pacific coast, run by the same local family for over 40 years. This one’s known for turning up rarer species like the antpitta alongside tanagers and trogons, and it ends with a home-cooked Costa Rican breakfast. Great pick if you’re already down near Uvita or the Osa Peninsula.

Multi-Day Birding Trips

If you’re a serious birder, or you just want to build your whole trip around birding, a multi-day guided tour is the way to go. You’ll cover several life zones in one trip, which massively increases the number of species you’ll see, and you don’t have to plan any of the logistics yourself. Here are a few solid options depending on how much time you have.

• Costa Rica: Paradise for Bird Watchers (7 days) — This one’s built specifically with birders in mind. It runs from Arenal Volcano to Monteverde to Carara National Park so you see three totally different habitats in one week. You’ll cover volcanic lowlands, cloud forest, and tropical dry forest without wasting a single travel day. Check dates and pricing here
• Best of Costa Rica (10 days) — Not exclusively a birding trip, but it hits a lot of the same high-value spots: La Fortuna, Monteverde, Manuel Antonio, and a dedicated cloud forest birdwatching walk near Quetzales National Park in San Gerardo de Dota, which is one of the best places in the country to spot the resplendent quetzal. Good option if you want birding mixed in with a broader nature trip. Check dates and pricing here
• Costa Rica Classic (12 days) — The longest of the three, and more of a general wildlife and adventure trip than a dedicated birding one, but it spends real time in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, including a guided trail walk and a night safari where quetzal and monkey sightings are common, plus stops in La Fortuna and Manuel Antonio. Good pick if you want birding as part of a bigger, more active itinerary. Check dates and pricing here

Our Bird Watching Tips

• There are so many incredible national parks here that are perfect for bird watching. A few of our personal favorites are Cahuita National Park, Curu Reserve, and Cabo Blanco.
• If you’re traveling with kids, the La Paz Waterfall Garden near the San Jose airport is a great, low-effort way to get them excited about birds. It’s a rehab center for local wildlife, with birds in habitats and detailed info in both English and Spanish.
• Go early. Birds are most active in the first couple hours after sunrise, and most guided tours start at dawn for exactly this reason.
• Don’t skip the guide, even if you think you can spot birds on your own. It genuinely makes a night-and-day difference in how many species you see.
• If you are looking for a good field guide for your trip, the consensus seems to be that The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide and Photo Guide to Birds of Costa Rica are your best book options. We own the first book and I am not a huge fan of how it is organized, but Thomas has adopted it as his birding bible and carries it everywhere.

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