Costa Rica "Carousel" Imagine yourself on a merry-go-round where all the "rides" are birds—no horses or elephants or lions. All of them marvelous, flamboyantly colorful, huge and small, great talons and tiny fragile legs! Instead of reaching for the brass ring at every turn, you are trying for the best photograph of their live counterparts—or at least the clearest and longest look at them. No typical carousel tinkly music, but instead melodious calls, squawking croaks, high-pitched hawk screams, quiet tiny clucks, and the airy swoosh of great wings overhead. How marvelous an experience that would be—right? Well, let me tell you that we six friends and relatives just enjoyed that magical ride in the beautiful Central American country called Costa Rica. What a blessed country it is too: spectacular mountains including active and dormant volcanoes, cloud forests, desert landscapes, thick tangled rainforest jungles, gorgeous Atlantic and Pacific coastlines, picturesque grasslands! Best of all: it is a peaceful stable country with friendly people and large tracts of national parks and preservation areas. We can all rejoice that Costa Rica has been assiduous in protecting its great biodiversity. Considered to contain 5% of the world's biodiversity, it has established formal protection for 25% of its land mass. In comparison, the USA protects 14% of its lands. Costa Rica lags behind the USA in establishing marine protected areas: the USA has 12% marine protected areas while Costa Rica at present preserves only 1%. However, the good news is that the country is working with many global agencies on oceanic preservation and will no doubt increase that low percent in the near future. In all the United States, there are 784 documented species of birds but in tiny Costa Rica (often compared to West Virginia in area) there are 894 documented bird species. In our 8 full days of birding, we saw 207 species! What a paradise for birders of all "feathers": those that just like to find and record their sightings, those that want to take photos of the avian "jewels," those who just like to "watch" birds and even those who are completing life lists of birds seen so they can enter the world's record books on most birds ever seen. Whatever your interest in birds—Costa Rica should be on your "bucket list" of must visit places!
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