Costa Rica- A World Class Bird Photography Destination

Costa Rica is a fantastic country for birding. More than 900 species are on the bird list, and most occur in easily accessible sites with excellent tourism infrastructure. It's easy to see literally hundreds of species during a week or two of birding in Costa Rica and the fun doesn't stop there, it's even more exciting for bird photography!

The abundance and variety of birds makes Costa Rica an excellent choice for bird photography and even more so because of these five factors:

Protected areas When visiting a site for bird photography, it quickly becomes apparent if bird persecution is an issue. If all of the birds are very wary, they have experienced some degree of hunting or persecution and are of course very difficult to photograph. Hides become a necessary factor for any degree of bird photography and this greatly limits the number of species captured by camera. However, it's just the opposite in protected areas. Fortunately, Costa Rica falls into this latter bird friendly category and is why folks go home with stellar shots of everything from shy curassows to beautiful trogons and tanagers.

Experience with photographers

Costa Rica has been a popular destination for wildlife photographers for many years. This experience is noted when visiting hotels and reserves throughout the country. Many have fruit feeders, tours, and other attractions that facilitate photography.

Comfortable, bird friendly lodging

Speaking of hotels, several have absolutely beautiful gardens boasting the right combination of lighting and biodiversity that turn them into gold mines for bird photography. Some, such as Laguna del Lagarto and Arenal Observatory Lodge also have their own reserves and well trained guides.

Toucans, parrots, tanagers and more!

The best part of bird photography in Costa Rica is of course the abundance and variety of birds. Some reserves and grounds of eco-lodges have literally hundreds of species including stunning toucans, glittering tanagers, showy flycatchers, manakins, motmots, parrots, and many other birds. On many occasions, it's not a case of having few birds to photograph but actually having too many avian subjects at once!

The quetzal experience

Last but far from least, it's always worth mentioning that Costa Rica has some of the easiest and most reliable opportunities to photograph the incredible Resplendent Quetzal.

Costa Rica is a fantastic place for bird photography. We love taking pictures of birds and love to help other people fill their memory cards with hundreds of world class images. Contact us for more information about our bird photography tours in Costa Rica.