Costa Rica Doesn’t Have Seagulls

For a country that has coastlines on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans the title of this post might be surprising. Costa Rica isn’t an outlier though, no country has seagulls! Well, I’m being a bit pedantic here but it’s true! There is no such thing as a “seagull”. There are plenty of different types of Gulls but none of them are called a “seagull”. The family Laridae, which includes gulls, terns, and skimmers, is made up of 99 species of birds. (99 problems but a seagull ain’t one.)

Costa Rica’s official checklist contains 15 species of gulls. Most of them are uncommonly spotted, however. Only the Laughing Gull and Franklin’s Gull are seen with much regularity. It was thus a pleasant surprise when in March of 2023 three species of Gulls were sighted together near the cruise ship dock in the Pacific Coast port of Puntarenas. The Herring Gull and Ring-billed Gull are uncommon but not that rare either. However, the third bird was very rare for Costa Rica. A Heermann’s Gull.

Heermann’s Gulls are found mostly along the Pacific coast of Canada, the US, and Mexico. A Heermann’s Gull was reported as a probably sighting sometime in the 1980s by Gary Stiles, co-author of the guide to the birds of Costa Rica. But no definitive (photographic) proof existed that Heermann’s Gull would range this far south. Until March of 2023. Getting a good picture has been challenging as the cruise ship dock is restricted access and the guards weren’t letting birders enter to see it. Some resorted to hiring local fishermen to transport them out along the dock so they could get a closer look. When I visited in late March I was fortunate to spot it almost immediately as it was flying about fifty meters offshore. No boats were seen nearby, but I was able to get a decent look at it as it perched on a buoy together with a group of Sandwich Terns.

I have to admit it felt a bit absurd driving 2.5 hours away to see a “seagull”. But when a Pacific Golden Plover was also sighted there I decided that it was worth making the drive. This far-ranging migrant is another rare sight. It breeds in the high Arctic of Alaska, Canada, and Siberia. It then spends the winter feeding in Australia, New Zealand, and South-East Asia. On its return flight, it occasionally stops over in Central America to feed and recover. This is the second year in a row an individual has been sighted in Puntarenas.

As an added uncommon sighting and a first for that area, as we were searching for the Pacific Golden Plover a Sabine’s Gull flew past us. So while we missed out on the Herring and Ring-billed Gulls that were there when the Heermann’s Gull was first spotted about two weeks ago, it was made up for with another rare Gull sighting.

What other surprises does this year’s spring migration hold in store? We’ve still got a few weeks to find out.