Rare Birds in Costa Rica
Our list for Costa Rica has 66 rare birds recorded regularly there: 7 residents, 29 winter visitors, 27 passage migrants and 3 scarce visitors
Most likely in October
GBIF · Oct
Share of all bird records in Costa Rica in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 66, most common first
Black-billed CuckooCoccyzus erythropthalmusPassage migrantRare28–32 cmRegularly Apr–Nov
Forster's TernSterna forsteriPassage migrantRare33–36 cmRegularly Dec–Jan
Hudsonian GodwitLimosa haemasticaPassage migrantRare36–42 cmRegularly May
American Golden-PloverPluvialis dominicaPassage migrantRare24–28 cmRegularly Oct–May
BobolinkDolichonyx oryzivorusPassage migrantRare16–20 cmRegularly Sep–Nov
Eurasian TealAnas creccaWinter visitorRare34–38 cmRegularly Dec–Mar
Palm WarblerSetophaga palmarumWinter visitorRare12–14 cmRegularly Oct–Apr
Arctic JaegerStercorarius parasiticusResidentRare41–46 cmRegularly Sep–Jul
Blackpoll WarblerSetophaga striataWinter visitorRare13–15 cmRegularly Oct–Mar
American Herring GullLarus smithsonianusPassage migrantRare53–65 cmRegularly Nov–Mar
Leach's Storm-petrelHydrobates leucorhousPassage migrantRare18–21 cmRegularly Mar–Jan
Lincoln's SparrowMelospiza lincolniiPassage migrantRare13–15 cmRegularly Feb–Mar
Blue-headed VireoVireo solitariusWinter visitorRare12–15 cmRegularly Oct–Mar
Chipping SparrowSpizella passerinaScarceRare12–15 cm
Bonaparte's GullChroicocephalus philadelphiaPassage migrantRare28–38 cmRegularly Dec
Long-tailed JaegerStercorarius longicaudusWinter visitorRare48–58 cmRegularly Dec–Feb
Ring-billed GullLarus delawarensisPassage migrantRare43–54 cmRegularly Dec
Nashville WarblerLeiothlypis ruficapillaPassage migrantRare11–13 cmRegularly Jan–Feb
MallardAnas platyrhynchosPassage migrantRare50–65 cmRegularly Aug–Apr
Arctic TernSterna paradisaeaPassage migrantRare33–39 cmRegularly Sep–Oct
Data: EOD – eBird Observation Dataset (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), accessed via GBIF.org, CC BY 4.0. Records from 2019–2024, aggregated and filtered by Birdfact. How these lists are made