The first two hours after sunrise are the most productive for wildlife photography in Costa Rica. This guide covers why morning light is superior and how to structure your day to take maximum advantage of it.
The White-throated Magpie-Jay is Guanacaste’s most flamboyant bird. Learn how to find, identify, and photograph this Near Threatened endemic in Costa Rica’s dry forest.
The Sanderling is one of the most dynamic shorebird subjects in Costa Rica. This guide covers identification, the best locations on the Pacific coast, and how to photograph these high-energy sandpipers working the Guanacaste surf line.
Among Costa Rica’s most overlooked wetland birds, the Striated Heron (Butorides striata) rewards patient observers with surprisingly close encounters. This small, cryptically patterned heron is common across the country’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts, yet most visitors miss it entirely — focused on larger birds like the Boat-billed Heron or the Roseate Spoonbill. I have photographed…
The Ruddy Treerunner (Margaritornis regius) is one of those birds that demands your attention even though it measures just 15 centimeters from bill to tail. Found in the understory of humid lowland and foothill rainforests on the Pacific slope of Costa Rica, this small furnariid (ovenbird family) is distinctive in its behavior and, with patience,…
Among Costa Rica’s most overlooked wetland birds, the Striated Heron (Butorides striata) rewards patient observers with surprisingly close encounters. This small, cryptically patterned heron is common across the country’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts, yet most visitors miss it entirely — focused on larger birds like the Boat-billed Heron or the Roseate Spoonbill. I have photographed…
When most visitors think of sloths in Costa Rica, they picture the round-faced, slow-blinking three-toed variety clinging to a branch. But there is another sloth living quietly in the canopy — one that most tourists never see, even when they are looking right at it. Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) is the forgotten twin of…
Jaguar in Costa Rica: The Complete Wildlife Photography Guide to the Americas’ Largest Cat I’ve been photographing wildlife in Costa Rica for a long time, and I’ve learned that the difference between a great trip and a legendary one often comes down to a single animal. The jaguar (Panthera onca) is that animal. It’s the…
Mottled Owl in Costa Rica: The Complete Photography Guide Most people hear a Mottled Owl before they see one. The call comes after dark, a descending double or triple note that echoes through the forest with a hollow, almost human quality. The bird itself is secretive, favoring dense secondary forest and forest edge where it…
Sierpe and Drake Bay, Costa Rica The Crossing: How to Reach the Edge of the World Sierpe and Drake Bay, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. View gallery The road to Sierpe ends at a concrete boat ramp where the Rio Sierpe widens into a mangrove estuary. At low tide, the river mouth is a maze of…