A Great Tinamou saunters onto the trail and gives its beautiful whistled song. The calls of White-shouldered Tanagers reveal the presence of a mixed flock with beautiful blue-bellied Bay-headed Tanagers, the chickadee-like antics of a Plain Xenops, endemic Black-hooded Antshrikes, Rufous-breasted Wren, woodcreepers, and other species. One new bird after another calls or comes into focus when the sounds of the forest are suddenly overpowered by the screams of a pair of Scarlet Macaws. These aren’t the only huge red, blue and yellow parrots seen that day. More are also seen flying over a river frequented by huge American Crocodiles, others feeding in trees near the beach. This is Carara National Park, one of the main strongholds for Scarlet Macaws in Central America, and one of the top birding sites in the country if not the world.

We don’t make that statement lightly. Carara National Park and adjacent areas host a truly astonishing array of biodiversity. Literally hundreds of species of birds have been identified in the area on account of this unique site acting as a major crossroads of habitats. The national park acts as the northern edge of a lowland rainforest ecosystem that mostly occurs in southern Costa Rica and barely crosses into western Panama. Tropical dry forest ecosystems are just across the river from Carara, and that same river hosts wetlands, mangrove forests, and an estuary. Include open and edge habitats in the mix and the end result is a meeting of birds from several major tropical habitats.

A visit to Carara is a must for every birder, these are some reasons why this is the case:

• Located just an hour and a half from the San Jose area, Carara is easily accessed from a highway.
• Easy trails with many birds acclimated to people. Normally shy birds like tinamous, Ruddy Quail-Dove, and Streak-chested Antpitta can be tame!
• Many, many species to choose from including multiple wrens, Turquoise-browed Motmot, and many other birds, eBird Hotspot list.

Since a day of birding at Carara can start in more than one way, depending on what clients would like to focus on, we can begin the birding around the seaside village of Tarcoles, in a good area for dry forest species, or along a birdy road adjacent to the national park. No matter how we start the day, we are going to see a lot. However, a typical day might begin with watching from the bridge over the Rio Tarcoles to see if we can find Southern Lapwing, flybys of macaws and several parrot species, and a wide variety of species of open and edge habitats like Striped Cuckoo, saltators, wading birds, euphonias, Stripe-headed Sparrow, and many others.