Odd habitats appeal to odd birds. Or moderately, I ought to say that misplaced habitats appeal to misplaced birds. The great outdated sewage ponds herald waders and wandering waterbirds which have nowhere else to go. Turf farms in wooded areas are large open oases for grasspipers and different species tailored to pure lawns. The identical will be mentioned of wooded parks in city areas and different bits of treasured habitat surrounded by areas much less hospitable to varied sorts of the avian form.
Though Costa Rica is famous for tropical forests and their subsequent wealth of birds and biodiversity, us native birders even have our personal, out of the way in which habitat hotspots. One of the crucial continuously visited is a spot created for pretend birds of the big steel flying form. Such machines require an in depth, flat, open and flat place the place their can safely land and take off. It doesn’t matter if that very same spot was once forest or whether it is surrounded by woods or wetlands or housing; an airport can’t perform if it doesn’t share traits with tundra or open steppe.
Because the Juan Santamaria Airport in Costa Rica’s Central Valley is positioned in an space that lacks comparable open habitats, its grassy fields and adjoining puddles herald birds that will have flown proper over whereas additionally attracting different non-forest resident species seeking a house. These are a few of the birds we search for and a few of what we discover.
Birds that Would Have Flown Over and Saved on Going
Upland Sandpiper, Baird’s Sandpiper, and Buff-breasted Sandpiper are the avian stars us native birders search for. These are the three important species that urge us to scan a grassy area with puddles in September and October. The truth that all three are seen most years tells us that they do fly over the town, most likely unseen and largely unheard. This 12 months, no less than 4 Uplands have been doing their grass strolling factor and some Baird’s have been additionally seen. Sadly, we collectively dipped on Buff-breasteds; there have been few if any information in different elements of Costa Rica this previous fall migration. Not less than comfort got here within the type of an American Golden-Plover that lingered for a number of days!
Different shorebirds additionally make appearances, we frequently see Solitary Sandpipers and Lesser Yellowlegs. As they stand in puddles and listen to the jets fly overhead, we additionally see flocks of migrating Cliff, Financial institution, and Barn Swallows, and listen to the distinctive sounds of Dickcissels. In late fall, an unusual for Costa Rica kestrel or two typically reveals up and stays for the winter. I’m wondering the place they arrive from?
Resident Birds Eking Out a Residing in City Environment
Though native birders are all concerning the migrants, sufficient resident species additionally happen to pique our curiosity. Killdeer (one other unusual species in Costa Rica) can typically be heard and seen on the airport. It shares area with flashy Southern Lapwings, and competes for auditory area with Crested Bobwhite, Japanese Meadowlark, and occasional Lesser Floor-Cuckoo whereas Groove-billed Anis and different edge species work the hedgerows.
The Odd Ones that May Happen
The airport additionally acts as a uncommon alternative for the misplaced birds, birds not usually current in addition to those that actually shouldn’t be there. Whereas we search for sandpipers and plovers, different uncommon species may take the type of alternative birds like Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Mangrove Cuckoo, and even Palm Warbler. Fork-tailed Flycatcher has been seen just a few instances, Crimson-breasted Meadowlark can present up, and there have to be different species which have occurred however gone unseen. With a lot of the airport inaccessible and most of our wanting restricted to fall migration, what number of Grasshopper and Savannah Sparrows visited the airport in the course of the winter months? What number of different odd birds made a cease on the airport earlier than persevering with on? Maybe birds like Aplomado Falcon and Northern Harrier, possibly even American Pipit.
None of these are out of the query, if we had extra individuals commonly checking the airport all year long, would a type of and even “crazier” birds be discovered? I guess so. I’m reminded of uncommon birds present in so many locations by devoted observers who spend many hours of many days scanning and checking their favourite websites. May Crimson-throated Pipit happen? Not going however then once more…one was seen within the Guatemalan highlands, one other in Ecuador, one other in Peru and so they do happen as vagrants in western North America earlier than migrating additional south….
What a few wagtail? Yeah, that actually can be pushing dream birding into waken actuality however remember that, just like the pipit from Siberia, some vagrant wagtails additionally discover themselves misplaced in California. In addition they fly south- have some flown over Costa Rica? Will a wagtail see a strip of open, inexperienced grass and shallow water flanked by woods and homes and determine to go to that sudden oasis? If that’s the case, hopefully, there will likely be a birder or two there to make the invention. Our native birding neighborhood has grown, it may occur. If it does, I’ll let !