Bird Watching at Bosque De Paz in Costa Rica

Do you call yourself a birder, a bird watching enthusiast, a nature and bird photographer, or just a curiosity seeker hoping to see the resplendent Quetzal on a cloud forest hiking trail? Do you do your bird watching alone, with friends, like to take a tour, or just keep your eyes and ears open while you enjoy nature, looking for monkeys or other wildlife?

In Costa Rica, it really doesn’t matter how you do your birding, because if you want to see and photograph birds, you are in one of the best bird watching locations in the world. Costa Rica boasts having over 870 bird species, according to the Costa Rican Ornithological Association Scientific Committee. The benefit to coming to Costa Rica for your bird watching experiences and tours is the fact that there is such a wide variety of species, as Costa Rica’s altitude varies between sea level and 3,800 meters (12,540 feet). Within that wide zone of temperature and climate conditions, you will find everything from the tropical Toucans and Scarlet Macaws to Quetzals and Trogons.

While it is true that Costa Rica is in the migratory path between North and South America, the greatest percentage of birds nest here permanently. At Bosque de Paz, we have recorded more than 331 species of birds at our preserve since July, 1997, including Resplendent Quetzal, Scaled Antpitta, Black Guan, Emerald Toucanet, Three Wattled Bellbird, Ornate Hawk-Eagle, Zeledonia, and Silvery-fronted, Tapaculo, Black–faced Solitaire, American Dipper, Golden-browed Chlorophonia, among many others, and abundant hummingbirds. We are proud to have hosted tours for the 1997 ABA / AFO Annual Meeting, and are a favorite of the National Audubon Society members, as well as hosting wildlife photography groups whose favorite seems to be the myriad of varieties of hummingbirds that are always close by.

At Bosque de Paz, we offer a number of bird watching tours, depending upon the number in your group, the length of time you wish to go birding and, of course, how hardy you are for hiking around. Remember, Bosque de Paz is a 1,000 acre private reserve with a lot of variation in altitude, so birders can sit in one spot, or head out into the cloud forest to expand their list of species, all depending upon what you want to do and what tour you would like to take.