The forests of Santa Rosa National Park in northwest Costa Rica are home to some of the most fantastic birds in Central America. I study the vocal behaviour of birds living in the tropical dry forest and the fragments of old-growth humid forest within this park. On this webpage you can hear recordings of the songs from some common birds of Santa Rosa. I also present recordings of monkeys and other animals commonly found in the Santa Rosa forests. Explore the recordings by clicking the links to the Bird Songs page, the Other Animals page, and the Credits & Links page. You can also explore the songs of Rufous-and-white Wrens and Long-tailed Manakins in detail on their own pages.
 

Click here to explore the bird songs of Santa Rosa

Listen to the amazing vocal repertoire of more than twenty-five species of birds from Santa Rosa National Park. Hear the stunning cackle of the Laughing Falcon, the double hoot of the Blue-crowned Motmot, the haunting duets of the Rufous-and-white Wren, the extraordinary dance songs of the Long-tailed Manakin, and many more.

Click on Credits & Links to learn more about this page

Learn more about Santa Rosa National Park and the Guanacaste Conservation Area, find out about the equipment I used to make these recordings, learn about sound spectrograms, and find out who assisted with this project. Find out how you can help protect the tropical rainforest of the Guanacaste Conservation Area!

Rufous-and-white Wrens
Visit the Rufous-and-white Wren Page to explore the flute-like songs of this humid forest resident. Compare the songs of males and females, listen to their impressive vocal duets, and learn the other calls of rufous-and-white wrens.

Plain Wrens
Visit the Plain Wren Page to explore the astonishingly synchromized duets of a bird that may hold the world's record for producing the most highly coordinated behaviour in the animal kingdom. Listen to the solo phrases of male and female plain wrens, and hear how they coordinate their solos into duets.

Long-tailed Manakins
Visit the Long-tailed Manakin Page to explore the large vocal repertoire of these colourful lek-mating songbirds. Although most sub-oscine songbirds have very simple vocal systems, long-tailed manakins have more than ten different types of calls. Listen to their unusual male-male duets, their quiet popcorn calls, and their unusual dancing sounds.

To listen to songs on this webpage...
Throughout this webpage, you can listen to songs by clicking on the sound spectrograms. Sound files are saved in MP3 format. Programs such as Windows Media Player, Real Player, or Quicktime should automatically recognize these files and play them for you. If your web browser does not automatically play the MP3 files when you click on the spectrograms, you may need to download software for playing sound. One good program is Winamp, which you can download for free from http://www.winamp.com/download.