A Travel and Site Guide to Birds of Costa Rica: With Side Trips to Panama and Nicaragua [Paperback]

Aaron D. Sekerak (Author), Elissa Conger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1996

Costa Rica is world famous for the stunning diversity of its bird life. Includes bird lists by region and by season, bird specialties at specific sites, checklist for birds of Costa Rica, travel routes and tour maps, and accommodations and local guiding information.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Lone Pine Publishing (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551050846
• ISBN-13: 978-1551050843
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #364,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Travel > Latin America > Central America > Nicaragua
  • #14 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Animals > Birds & Birdwatching > Excursion Guides
  • #32 in Books > Travel > Latin America > Central America > Panama

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Helpful site guide; not a birding field manual., August 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Travel and Site Guide to Birds of Costa Rica: With Side Trips to Panama and Nicaragua (Paperback)

This is not a birding field guide, but a helpful guide to quite a few Costa Rica birding sites. Very good descriptions of sites included (including some information not available elsewhere) but many other places were not covered. The author's assessments are useful. Supplements other guides.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good pre-birding trip guide, April 12, 2007

By 

Brian Allen "neotropical birding" (Manistee, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Travel and Site Guide to Birds of Costa Rica: With Side Trips to Panama and Nicaragua (Paperback)

This is a good little birding site guide, not a species identification field guide. This would be very helpful in planning a birding trip to Costa Rica and gives information for about 75+ sites with a good introduction to birding Costa Rica in the beginning. Here too is a table on pgs. 20-22 called "Characteristics of Major Birding Destinations". This table groups destinations with accomodations in the different sections of the country (NE, NW, SE, SW, highlands, lowlands. It details accessibility, cost, comfort, guide availability, and difficulty of birding.

The book is arranged in chapters for each region of the country with details of the birding sites including excellent maps (better than most site guides I have seen) and written directions. The birding accounts are first person and folksy and make for easy and yet absorbing reading and are enhanced with many black and white location photos. There are also bird lists for each site that tend towards the more expected commonly seen species rather than an extensive checklist for all species located at the site. Each site does have a list provided of the birds the author found when he was there including notations of their abundance and the season that he visited. Some sites have additional checklists provided by the lodges or other birders.

There are brief mentions of a few sites in neighboring Nicaragua and Panama at the end of the book and two appendices the first is a complete list of birds of Costa Rica in checklist order and grouped according to location with notes on abundance, habitat and elevation. The second is a a seven day checklist for your trip.

I enjoy sitting down in a comfortable chair and reading over books like this but you should consult the internet for updates on lodges and parks as this book is now over ten years old. Some places of course are not included, including one of my favorites Savegre Lodge also know as Cabinas Chacon in San Gerardo de Dota. Other site guides that I would recommend in addition to this would be Dennis Roger's "Site Guide for Costa Rica" and Nigel Wheatley and David Brewer's "Where to Watch Birds in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean".

22 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars For serious birdwatchers. No color photos, July 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Travel and Site Guide to Birds of Costa Rica: With Side Trips to Panama and Nicaragua (Paperback)

Lots of tables and descriptions of where to go to see birds. 99% Costa Rica. A few black and white drawing of birds, plants, maps. Not good if you want color photos of birds you might see.