Beautiful Tanagers from Costa Rica

The beauty of birds is one of the main reasons why we watch them, why we love to capture them with cameras. Each species showcases its own form of subtle beauty, even the sparrows, the pigeons, and small dull colored birds like the Brown Creeper. Those of us who enjoy bird photography love to shoot just about any type of bird but most of would also be fibbing if we said that we didn't prefer to take pictures of some birds over others.

Some of the more photogenic bird species are the tanagers and the various beauties that live in Costa Rica are no exception.

Such as this Golden-hooded Tanager!

The following are seven other star members of this colorful family that occur in this beautiful country:

Blue-gray Tanager

This lovely bird is a common garden species in many parts of the country. It acts as an excellent introduction to bird photography in Costa Rica.

Scarlet-rumped Tanager

Despite its striking appearance, this bird is also common in the lower levels of second growth and edge habitats. Like the Blue-gray, it is also frequently seen in gardens!

Silver-throated Tanager

One of the most common tanagers in Costa Rica, this is a bird of middle elevation habitats. It shares cloud forests with many other beautiful bird species and isn't shy about visiting fruit feeders.

Emerald Tanager

Although not as common as the other tanagers on this list, this stunning bird is frequent at choice sites in the foothills of the Caribbean slope.

Bay-headed Tanager

A striking, beautiful bird, the Bay-headed Tanager is most common in foothill and middle elevation forests. It especially enjoys fruiting figs.

Green Honeycreeper

Watch for this stunning, jewel-like bird at any number of humid forest sites including hotel gardens and feeders!

Red-legged Honeycreeper

Small and exquisite, this little tanager can come in for close views especially in feeder situations.

A pleasure to watch, tanagers also act as ideal subjects for bird photography. Contact us today to learn more about where we go to get fantastic shots of these and hundreds of other beautiful birds in Costa Rica. Happy birding!