Below we have a peak at the airborne wildlife of Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
As I began my birding journey I was surprised to learn that there are only 10,000-12,000 species of birds1 known in the world. I'd hazard a guess that that means there is a maximum of 20,000 total species known and unknown and that the number is closer to 12,000-14,000.
The number 12,000 surprised me. I had suspected there was 1-2 order magnitudes more species. In the biologically diverse land of Costa Rica, there seems to be an infinite number. But that is not the case. And when my friend visited for 10 days and meticulously searched for every new bird he could possibly find - waking up at the crack of dawn armed with his notepad, binoculars, and merlin bird id app,2 hiking up to 30km a day, climbing trough mosquito filled mangroves, and then birding again at sunset - he found ~130 species.
Now indeed 130, 100 or so which were new to him, is a large number of species. But as his trip went on he went from finding 30-40 new birds a day to finding 1-4. And this made me realize that approaching the total enumeration of local birds is somewhat possible3, and that no, there obviously is not an infinite number of species of birds.
This realization of finiteness gave me an appreciation of the birds I see4 everyday.
These are the current finalists in the game of life, the ones that made it; all future generations will be their children. There's not endless variation, this is what is, if you want to see a magpie jay well those only come in blue with a white or black throat, no you cannot see one in red but if you want a red bird well a tanager does come in that color, those that peck wood look a certain way, parrots are never purple, hawks are never tiny, warblers are never large...
Here's what I've found sofar5, the shots were taken with a Sony A6400 with a 70mm-300mm Tamaron f/4.5-f/6.3 Lens.
A vulture takes a fishermen's catch.
Some snowy egrets
These two seemed to have had a falling out.
The tricolored heron
My attempt at an inflight photo.
Tropical kingbird
Streak-backed oriole
Scissor-tailed flycatcher
A scissor-tailed flycatcher social hour
Scissor-tailed flycatcher in flight! 
Likely a juvenile common hawk 
Some humming bird
A great kiskadee or the pecho amarillo or the bienteveo común. One of Guanacaste's most fierce and common little guys. If you've lived here you've definitely heard them. De ta-dee! De ta-dee! These little dudes attack falcons and hawks. Dun fuck wit 'em.
I swear these guys knew they were in a photoshoot.
Alright it's time for our sand piper and turn section. Attention! Formation!
Pretend to be a stick! HOLD! 
The guy in the back with a long beak is a whimbrel. 
Zoom in and see all the fish they got.
The majestic white-throated magpie-jay. They usually make an awful sound but they are indeed able to produce a beautiful chirp.
A woodpecker or as the hispanohablante's say, carpintero
Does this bird remind you of Donald Trump or is it just me?
This Osprey chills on this branch everyday.
Black-crowned night heron
Crested caracara with a little snack.
Find the hummingbird.
A blurry summer tanager, I believe`
Scrub euphonia, isn't this little guy just adorable?
Can you find the woodcreeper in the below pic?
This may be a dove, I'm not sure.
The little blue heron!
Ok technically not a bird, but it's got a baby.
Yellow-crowned night heron
The black and yellow crowned night herons get along, it seems.
A squirrel cuckoo's butt
Can you find the butterfly?
A few shots of the Elegant Trogon. This was from the Diriá National Park, an absolutely splendid place to visit primarily cuz no one is there yappin' and scaring away the birds.
And now a black-headed trogon in my ~backyard
Possibly a baltimore or bullock's oriole.
Baltimore oriole 
Blue-gray tanager
And we'll finish with a puffbird.
- What defines a species? The answer is debatable, but the simplest idea - known as the Biological Species Concept - is a unique group that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring. The problem with this definition is some birds on the genetic periphery are able to breed with two otherwise disjoint groups. It's also, ya know, damn hard to figure out which other birds a given bird can impregnate with a fertile baby. [↩]
- A tool by Cornell University that uses the phone's mic to identify birds by their chirps/songs [↩]
- Local birds. Birds migrate to Costa Rica from all over North America so on any given day you may find a new bird that is passing by on its migration journey. [↩]
- And for the most part previously ignored. [↩]
- Actually, I have a lot more better pictures for a later article. [↩]