The best advice for birding in Costa Rica is to visit several different habitats, hire a local guide who specializes in birdwatching and come prepared with the "Birds of Costa Rica". This excellent guide, written by Gary Stiles of the University of Costa Rica and Alexander Skutch, is readily available from Cornell University Press. Birders will find well - drawn illustrations as well as helpful information about habits, calls and plumage in this classic book, which also lists key areas for productive birdwatching and provides useful hints about clothing, insect repellents, etc.

Some of the birds described could have sprung straight from the imagination of Dr. Seuss. Take the Umbrella Bird, for example, with its topknot of fine feathers that make the bird look like it's wearing an umbrella on its head (which would be just the thing in the wet cloudforest where it lives). Or the Three - Wattled Bellbird, which doesn't say "Ding, dong", or sound like a bell at all. It goes "BONK!"

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