Now that we’ve reached roughly the two-thirds mark of our time in Costa Rica, I think it’s a good time to reflect back on the huge diversity of bird species we’ve seen during our time here. During the first half of the semester, Dr. Schmidt led birding walks most mornings. During these walks, the morning’s bird list was tracked through eBird, a phone app developed by Cornell as a way to gather distribution data from recreational birders.
Combining these bird walk lists with incidental observations students made throughout the day, our group has seen a total of 143 species spread across 39 families (as well as one bird, the dusky-faced tanager, whose family is currently under debate). While 13 of these families are represented only be a single species, the majority have at least three to four species to their name. The most populous groups include: Trochilidae (hummingbirds) with 12 species spotted so far; Thraupidae (tanagers) with 15 species; and Tyrannidae (flycatchers) with the group having spotted a whopping 20 species so far!
