Birdwatching
A small country with an enormous bird list. There are places where the quetzal is the whole reason for the trip and others where macaws fly over the main street.
Also searched as
- birdwatching Costa Rica
- birding
- see a quetzal
- scarlet macaws
- toucans
Where to find it · 6 areas
Bagaces
Guanacaste's middle town: it sits on the Interamericana between Cañas and Liberia, and most people drive straight past without knowing the county holds three big things. To the north, the Llanos de Cortés waterfall and its turquoise pools. Higher up, Miravalles volcano and the geothermal field that heats its waters. And to the south, dropping toward the Tempisque river, Palo Verde National Park: the wetlands where thousands of water birds gather in the dry season. Bagaces is dry heat, flatland and cattle country.
2 days PuntarenasBahía Drake
A hamlet on the northern coast of the Osa Peninsula, reached by boat up the Sierpe river or by small plane. It's one of the entrances to Corcovado National Park, and outside the village there's no paved road and not much phone signal. You come for the forest and the sea, not for comfort.
3 days PuntarenasMonteverde
Cloud forest at around 1,400 metres above sea level, where mist drifts through the trees for much of the day. You walk it on trails and hanging bridges, and it's one of the places people come looking for the quetzal. It really is cool up there — bring a jacket.
2 days PuntarenasPuerto Jiménez
The largest town on the Osa Peninsula and the overland base for entering Corcovado National Park. It sits on the Golfo Dulce, calm water on one side and rainforest on the other, and scarlet macaws fly over the main street.
3 days San JoséSan Gerardo de Dota
A narrow valley on the Savegre river, above 2,000 metres, reached by a steep descent off the Interamerican highway. It's one of the places people come to see the quetzal, mostly between February and May. At night it gets genuinely cold — jacket cold.
2 days LimónTortuguero
A village with no road, wedged between the canals and the Caribbean sea: you arrive by boat or small plane. It's one of the main green turtle nesting sites in the Caribbean, and nesting is watched at night with a guide, roughly July to October. The rest of the year the canals are explored by boat or kayak.
2 days