Birds of Costa Rica (Helm Field Guides)

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This easy-to-use identification guide to the 280 bird species most commonly seen in Costa Rica is perfect for resident and visitor alike. Please note that audiobooks and ebooks purchased from this site must be accessed on the Princeton University Press app.

Costa Rica supports eight endemic bird species (although three of them are only on the rarely visited Cocos island, some 330 miles away by boat). By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Where taxonomic ambiguity exists, they helpfully include alternate species names in parentheses and uncertain labels or proposed splits in brackets, while providing evidence for the changes in the appendices. Now Henderson has created a dedicated field guide to the birds that travelers are most likely to see, as well as to the unique or endemic species that are of high interest to birders.

G. Howell’s Birds of Costa Rica (2023) is an exemplary field guide and a rich source of information on Costa Rican birds that is accessible to a wide range of users. This is a good and brand new (May 2023) field guide but not necessarily superior to the older (2014) book by other authors that we also recommend for Costa Rica at our “ recommended field guides blog”. With a trip to Costa Rica imminent and as a serious "hobbyist" birder, I wanted a guide that would be similar to my trusty Collins Bird Guide to serve me on my first venture to exotic birding climes! Change country: -Select- Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Republic Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Islands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Cook Islands Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Fiji Finland France Gabon Republic Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of Croatia Republic of the Congo Romania Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State Vietnam Virgin Islands (U. At the biological crossroads of the Americas, Costa Rica hosts an astonishing array of plants and animals-over half a million species!

G. Howell is an international bird tour leader with WINGS and is one of the world’s leading authorities on the birds of Mexico and Central America. Widely accepted splits that have not been included are Western Woodhaunter (from Striped Woodhaunter), Carmioli's Tanager (from Olive Tanager), and Cabanis's Ground-Sparrow (from Prevost's Ground-Sparrow). Species’ distribution maps are quite generalized but including San José and gridlines on each map improves interpretability. This is the one field guide the novice or experienced birder needs for identifying birds in the field in the diverse habitats found in Costa Rica. Add to that the fact that it is safe, with a good road network and quite a lot of its nationals understand basic English, and you're looking at a great birding destination.All in all, this is a very good field guide, typical of most modern bird field guides: a good layout, accurate illustrations, useful text and quite accurate distribution maps, plus the usual introductory sections such as photos and descriptions of the different bird habitats in Costa Rica. Buenas tardes, estimado amigo David, gran reseña la de ese libro de Dale Dyer y Steve Howell, por lo que nos cuentas es un maravilloso libro guía de consulta sobre la diversidad de aves en Costa Rica. Nevertheless, the plates are pleasing to the eye and largely accurate so take it with you and don't worry about any minor inaccuracies.

In April 2000, he published the first quarterly online Gone Birding Newsletter and has been keeping readers up-to-date on rare bird sightings, new distributional records, and other pertinent local birding news ever since. Few people get to see these species but it would have been good to show them, even if just to raise awareness of them with the authorities. The biogeography section includes brief descriptions of the wide variety of habitats found in Costa Rica along with a collection of 20 color photographs depicting how they appear on the ground. Despite these minor omissions, which can hopefully be addressed in the future, Dale Dyer and Steve N.However I think it is a shame that space was not given to the three vulnerable endemics found on the small uninhabited Costa Rican island of Cocos which lies 500 km to the south. High quality photographs from one of the country’s top nature photographers are accompanied by detailed species descriptions, which include nomenclature, size, distribution, habits and habitat. The taxonomy in this book follows the IOC except for oceanic species, where Steve Howell has adopted the classification that he used in his recent photo guide, Oceanic Birds of the World. It features descriptions and illustrations of all 903 species definitely known from Costa Rica, including pelagics and species regular to Cocos Island.

All ornithologists, birders, hawkwatchers, conservation biologists, and others engaged in bird observations in Costa Rica will want to include this excellent field guide as part of their basic field equipment. The appearance of this new, compact guide to the birds of Costa Rica should spur even more international birders to come to this avian paradise. Dana Gardner's style was more typical of good field guides and benefited from deeper colour saturation, but the layout of this new book is a lot less confusing, so overall it is better for field use. Ideal for the travelling nature watcher, this useful guide provides a comprehensive overview of the variety of bird-life to be found in Costa Rica.We also acknowledge the enduring presence and deep traditional knowledge, laws, and philosophies of the Indigenous Peoples with whom we share this land today. Additional species from Cocos Island and a list of rarities, vagrants, and offshore visitors are included in the appendices, offering solace to completionist readers.