Having been inspired by all the great Costa Rica trip reports, I thought I would add my long-overdue report from late December - early January. While my bird list is not as long as some, it was a great trip and I think there will be some good info in here for others (we did see a few birds I haven't seen on any else's list!). I was traveling with 6-11 people almost the whole trip, including three kids, and I was the only birder (so you can imagine a little frustration there!) Fortunately my friends were quite understanding and got into the spirit, too. I have included more than just birds here, so you can skip to the lists if you're not interested in the rest.

A couple of logistical notes - traveling in Costa Rica can be a bit difficult at the height of the tourist season (between Christmas and just after New Years). It can be almost impossible to get a car rental and many tours are full. I wouldn't recommend this time (we didn't have a choice). Fortunately, we had friends in Costa Rica with cars, or I'm not really sure how we would have gotten around. ATMs are not prevalent as in Europe, but dollars are taken almost everywhere (we were told in Monteverde that 90% of the tourists in Costa Rica are American). Some hotels, restaurants, etc take credit cards, but most charge a 6% surcharge. We found that cash works best, local currency or dollars. The only place in Costa Rica we did not feel safe was in parts of downtown San Jose at night (close to the center - don't walk around alone). Our friends who live in a suburb of San Jose agreed with this assessment.

If you're stuck in San Jose, try the gold museum, it's really interesting. Or for birding, take a bus or cab out to the University area - they have a nice arboretum and the birding is good. There are even sloths (one of which found its way into our friend's garage once - they can squeeze in through the smallest of slots). In and around San Jose we saw:

Cattle egret (lots - flocks can be seen wheeling around over the fields and green hills)
Turkey Vulture
Rock Dove
Groove-billed Ani
Hoffmann's Woodpecker
Boat-billed Flycatcher
Clay-colored Thrush
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Blue-grey Tanager
Great-tailed Grackle (the starling of Costa Rica)

The next day we visited a banana plantation on the Carribean side, near Siquirres. Our friend works for Dole, developing ways to recycle organic wastes and plastic used on the plantations, and developing alternative banana products such as banana leaf paper products. We got an inside look at how the banana plantation operates, where the workers live, etc., and had many interesting conversations about worker conditions and rights, international boycotts, and the local economy. I managed to sneak in a little bird-watching, and saw:

Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Plain-breasted Ground-dove
Groove-billed Ani
Brown Jay (boy are these noisy)
Clay-colored Thrush
Wilson's Warbler
and ... the only house sparrows of the trip (at the banana plantation, of course!)

There were actually numerous other birds here, but it was difficult trying to identify them while everyone else was doing other things. Many of them I figured out on later parts of the trip. The plain-breasted ground-dove was my favorite - I was watching a flock of house sparrows at the plantation, only to notice that one looked different. This dove was actually the same size as the house sparrows (which helped considerably in its identification). There was also something that looked a lot like a Mourning Dove sitting on wires above the plantation. Unfortunately in that part of Costa Rica there are a lot of look-alike doves, and I couldn't pin it down from afar.

Because the Dole plantation is fairly remote, most of the workers (Costa Ricans and expats) live with their families in a complex built by the company in an old starfruit plantation. These are pretty little houses with lots of interesting fruit trees around, attracting parrots and oropendulas, whose nests we saw. In addition to starfruit trees, they also had cinnamon trees and other exotic stuff in their back yards.

We then caravaned through the Cordillera de Tilaran (high central mountains of Costa Rica) on our way to Guanacaste, skirting Lake Arenal and its volcano. From the highway we saw large numbers of cattle egrets, great egrets, and black vultures, along with:

White-winged Dove
White-collared Swift
Social Flycatcher
Blue-and-white Swallow
Lineated Woodpecker

This was an interesting area, as it was filled with small co-ops making cheese or harvesting coffee beans. Coffee plantations are in every tiny lot and on every steep hillside. Workers in knee-high rubber boots are everywhere, carrying basket-loads of coffee. There is also a lot of dairy. When we got up to the volcano, it was too cloudy to see (a common event). As we drove around Lake Arenal, it was very misty, forested, beautiful and clearly full of birds, which I did not get to stop and look at due to our schedule (I got to do a lot more birding later in the trip). We did see a coatimundi by the side of the road. I have this area on my list to come back to sometime (with birders!). A 4-wheel drive is definitely recommended for this area, even in the dry season.