If you are building a house in Costa Rica and want birds to come, don’t make the same mistake that developers of Sabana Park in western San Jose made in the last century: make sure the trees you plant are native.

After non-native trees were chopped and native species replaced them, some 20 bird species who evidently had felt slighted, have returned — in a big way, reports La Nacion.

The visiting birds range from the yellow necked parrot with its green breast, yellow crown and grey beak to the striped woodpecker, reports the National Biodiversity Institute (InBio).

InBio has been watching the park since 2008. They are part of the Costa Rican bird observatory billed (pun unintentional) as a “bio blitz.” InBio, the U.S. Forest Service and the Klamath Bird Observatory in Oregon all collaborate.

The birds of the entire country are being watched under the program but Sabana Park is a special poster child because it shows what damage human disregard for the environment can cause. Native bird species, including the endangered peregrine falcon, simply boycotted foreign trees.

For InBio coordinator Randall Garcia, the welcome sightings of the birds show that the reforestation of La Sabana with native plants has been an unqualified success.

It was not the intent of the original developers to slight the birds, of course. But they were thinking more of human usage of the park, which contains the National Stadium, the National Gymnasium and tennis courts — none of that of interest to birds.

In fact, the giant park threatened to become a sort of “ecological desert” completely artificial in nature. In fact, it appeared to be a three dimensional poster for one of the first books ever to warn of environmental disaster, “The Silent Spring.”

It is a tribute to the awareness of Costa Ricans that the sad error was caught fairly early. But Garcia warned that it is too early to know if the species are here to stay or are merely visiting.

Even as tourists, they are welcome. Hopefully, at least some will make a permanent home in the more hospitable public park. The birdsong will resound from the branches once more.

Source: Fijatevos.com