The past November 22th, a friend of mine saw a "rare" bird at the Caño Negro Wetlands. While he was fishing with some guys, he found a bird that in the beginning he thought that was a Least Tern (Sternulla antillarum), but he was not very convince about the identification. So, he decided to send the photos he took to some other friend, but he never thought this bird will become in the 923 species of birds reported in Costa Rica. 

The species name of this new report is Yellow-billed Tern (Sternulla supercilliaris), a tern commonly found in South America, with just  two reports from Panama on eBird, besides this new one, the rest of them are individuals found in Colombia, Venezuela, Surinam, Guyana, Brasil, Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.

So now, there is the question once again, where does this individual come from? why wanted to stay in that area? how many countrys has been until came to Costa Rica? Well, this is something not easy to understand, but definitely it is a very special report that help us to continue falling in love with Nature.

Here I show you a picture of this new bird for Costa Rica, pura vida!

The voice box called Syrinx can be found only in birds, and it represents a rare example of a true evolutionary novelty. Yes, birds do have Larynxes as well as mammals, reptiles and amphibians, but the Syrinx is located lower down, where the windpipe splits to go into the the two lungs.
Crocodiles diverged from birds 240 million years ago, and we know about their calls, but crocs just have Larynx. If the Syrinx evolved as birds came into existence, then some dinosaurs may have had two sound sources, so probably one day there will be a fossil found of a dinosaur with a Larynx together with a Syrinx. 
This Three-wattled Bellbird (Procnias tricarunculatus) has the loudest call in the world, so probably its Syrinx it’s one of the most evolved of the avian kingdom. Enjoy this mix of a bell with a bird!

Hawks are always great to find them, and when they are perched is even better. This juvenile Short-tailed Hawk(Buteo brachyurus) is one of the smallest species of the genus Buteo. Recent phylogenies of the buteos based on mitochondrial DNA sequences place Buteo brachyurus in a clade with Buteo swainsoni, Buteo galapagoensis, Buteo solitarius, and Buteo albigula. All of these species are primarily Neotropical species, with only Short-tailed Hawks and B. swainsoni having significant presences in North America. It is hypothesized that these hawks had a common ancestor similar to B. swainsoni that was a long-distance migrant capable of colonizing distant oceanic islands. The species has two morph types, this one black, and the another one is white. Another hypothesis talks about those two morphs could mate together, but there is nothing to can prove that. Here are a couple of photos I took, while I was birding I found this lovely rare black morph.

The Cotinga family is represented by about 67 species distributed throughout Central and South America, including bellbirds. Four species of bellbirds have been described and they all are classified into the genus Procnias.

The Three-wattled Bellbird (Procnias tricarunculatus) is found in tropical forests between Honduras and Panama, making it an endemic species of Central America.

Every year, between February and September, one can find Three-wattle Bellbirds in the middle elevations of mountain ranges around Costa Rica. So, lets talk about this amazing bird!!

They have very remarkable sexual dimorphism: males are chestnut-colored with a snowy head and three wattles- one hanging from each corner of the bill, and another dangling from the bill´s upper base. Females are a drab olive with a black-streaked breast, lacking wattles. Ok, now we know what males and females look like, so what about juveniles? If it is a male, a juvenile will look just like a female, except they do have the characteristic wattles around the bill! So, now that we know how to tell males and females apart, lets continue talking about the bellbird´s natural history. 

To wake up early in the morning, check for your equipment, your bird book and a good cup of coffee, of course.Then, go out of your place where you was sleeping with the idea to find the species of birds you was checking on internet the night before.

Birding is a real passion that not all the people can say they do have it. It is hard to explain the joy of find a new species, that "lifer" you was waiting.No matter where you are, birds surrounding us with too many ways to get in love of them. 

Here, there will be a story about birding in Costa Rica in any time, but also a scientific information with a lot of interesting facts about the families and species of birds possible to find in Monteverde, and in the whole country.