Bird Watching in Costa Rica – Coming to See the Hummingbirds?

Planning on birding in Costa Rica? Want to maximize the number of birds seen and concentrate on endemics during your visit? Then read on, because you’ve come to the right place!

The tiny Hummingbirds (Colibris) bear a wide a range of superlatives: they possess the highest metabolic rates known in the avian world, and they are able to fly backwards and sideways. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen one do loops, but don’t quote me on that!

For their fast-paced lifestyle they need a continuous supply of flower nectar as a high-energy food, but they do also eat insects and small spiders to obtain proteins. Hummingbirds are invaluable as pollinators, especially for Costa Rica’s wide range of Heliconias.

Unofficially these banana birds are also called the Blue-Gray Tanagers because pairs of them instantly show up as soon as you put a banana in their feeding place. They also like many other kinds of fruit and berries as well.

Did you know that Humming Birds feed every 10 minutes on average throughout the day? Also a humming bird’s heart beats 1,260 per minute during the day and slows to 50 beats per minute during the night.

These little birds flap their wings so fast that you will need a very fast shutter speed to get a great picture of them. These birds are amazing and we are sure you will see many in Costa Rica.

Humming Bird Garden in Selvatura, Monteverde

Imagine 100 beautiful hummingbirds flying cheerfully around you! That’s what the incredible Humming Bird Garden has to offer.

More than 14 species of these particular birds will amaze you with their incredible aerial maneuvers and bright lively colors.

No matter what mood you are in, these small creatures will cheer you up and give you an unforgettable air show. So come to our Humming Bird Garden and amuse yourself with these fantastic speedy creatures.

Humming Bird Species:

> Allen’s
> Anna’s
> Berylline
> Black-chinned
> Blue-throated
> Broad-billed
> Broad-tailed
> Buff-bellied
> Calliope
> Costa’s
> Lucifer
> Magnificent
> Ruby-throated
> Rufous
> Violet-crowned
> White-eared
> Xantus’

Hummingbirds are found only in the New World, arising in the tropics and diversifying in abundance in the Andes and along the backbone of Central America.

There is such a wide variety in size, bills, plumage, and ornaments (head plumes & horns, tail streamers, gorget patterns) that over 100 types are currently recognized.

Because the sources of nectar is constantly changing as flowers bloom and fade, most hummingbirds live solitary lives, aggressively defending nectar sources from rivals.

Yet despite the strong pressure to gather nectar rapidly, studies have shown that 70% of a hummer’s time is spent doing little else than singing, self-preening, and sunbathing
Hummingbirds range in size from the smallest birds on earth to several quite large species.

The woodstars are among the smallest hummers; an example is the Bahama Woodstar, restricted to the Caribbean islands off Florida.

Another small and unique species is the Bearded Mountaineer, which occurs very high in the Andes of central Peru; it, however has a long tail.

Not far distant in those same mountains lives the huge Great Sapphirewing and the largest of them all, the Giant Hummingbird, the size of a swift.

Despite the many species of hummingbirds, they are divided into just two subfamilies.

The Trochilinae include all the colorful species (nearly 300 in all) while the Phaethornithinae is composed of the six genera and 34 species of hermits.

Brown, long-tailed hermits forage in the understory; some short-tailed species, like the Reddish Hermit, weigh only 1.6 gram (the same weight as the tiny Bee Hummingbird of Cuba, often termed the “world’s smallest bird”).

Hermits often have a species affinity for Heliconia plants and it can be rewarding to “stake-out” a patch inside the forest. Unlike many other hummingbirds, hermits are generally not territorial and few species have iridescence.

When present, it is limited to the throat or crown. Nonetheless, it is obvious that hermits are hummingbirds, and even the most jaded “I can’t tell one bird from another” non-naturalist can identify a hummingbird as such.

Of course, not all hummingbirds are tropical, or appear to defy the laws of physics and proportions, nor are all bright and colorful.

Females and youngsters are often plainly-colored, particularly among the migratory species of North America. This cryptic coloring can be important because only females sit on the nest, and if they were bright then they or the nestlings might more easily become prey.

Hummingbird nests are often beautifully spun, the almost-ready-to-fledge juvenals represent the first documented nesting of Costa Rica’s Hummingbird in Monterey County.

Migratory hummers are susceptible to vagrancy, accounting for the variety that has reached California, including several Violet-crowned Hummingbirds.

Surely the most unexpected was Xantus’s Hummingbird from southern Baja California; a male visited the interior of San Diego Co. but a female built a nest and laid eggs in Ventura Co.

The only Blue-throated Hummingbird to reach California not only built a nest and laid eggs, but fledged three young! These appeared to be Blue-throated X Anna’s hybrids.

No matter where you are in Costa Rica, if there are flowers around, you’re sure to see a hummingbird or two!