Costa Rica is known internationally for its great diversity of plant and animal life, as well as for the national park system designed to protect representatives of those organisms. However, not everything here is exactly rose-colored. Despite a new and stricter Forestry Law, timber cutting continues in the few remaining stands of privately owned forest. Meanwhile, plantation agriculture with its extensive monocultures keeps dominating more and more of the rural landscape. Sometimes it seems as though it won't be long before most birds will be hard pressed just to find a place to perch.
Loss of habitat is the greatest peril faced by most species on the planet today.
Nonetheless, some species are at greater risk than others, and those with limited geographic distribution are often among the most endangered. In the specific case of Costa Rica, this phenomenon becomes obvious in the birds listed under BirdLife International's Globally Threatened Species Programme. Small geographic ranges are the primary limiting factor for 11 of these 14 species, the others are more widespread but rare throughout their ranges. All three Cocos Island endemics made the list simply by virtue of being confined to an entire home range of 2,400 hectares. Since the island is protected as a national park, you'd think these three species would have no worries, but the truth is that feral cats, rats, goats, pigs and deer could all have negative effects on the future of these unique birds.