Palo Verde National Park in Costa Rica
The Palo Verde National Park is located in the Guanacaste Province of Costa Rica, between the rivers Bebedero and Tempisque, about 30 km west of the town of Cañas. It was created through an executive decree on December 20, 1982. It covers an area of 16,804 hectares. The Palo Verde National Park in Costa Rica is formed by a group of diverse habitats of flood plains, bounded by rivers and by a row of limestone hills. This area is subject to seasonal flooding of great magnitude. During the rainy season and due to little natural drainage of the plain, the area is flooded by the combined effect of the rain, tides, and floods along the rivers of Tempisque and Bebedero. On some occasions, the entire area becomes a huge lagoon.
Palo Verde National Park in Costa Rica is one of the places of the greatest ecological diversity of the country; there are approximately 15 habitats that are created by the topography, soil conditions, including drainage, the overflow of rivers and the effect of the tides. Among these habitats in Costa Rica are brackish and freshwater lagoons and marshes, with mangrove full of grass, mangrove forests, grasslands with plants like chumico de Palo or raspaguacal, tropical forest of the lowlands, mixed forest of deciduous woodlands, drowned forests and evergreen forests.
One of the most conspicuous and that gives its name to the place is the Palo Verde, a bush of leaves, branches and the trunk light green, which is found both in the swamps and in other habitats. Among the larger trees are the espavel, the ciba, the pochote, rom-rom, cibo barrigón, the guayabón, the Javillo, the cocobolo, the nispero and panama. In the marshes can be seen species of aquatic plants such as Tifa, the trista and the grass gamalote and the Platanilla. In the hills abounds the cardones an endemic species of Costa Rica; there is also the real guayacán tree of precious wood and in grave danger of extinction.
The natural water system of Palo Verde National Park in Costa Rica creates the right conditions to be produced in the area, the largest concentration of the country and Central America of aquatic birds are resident and migratory. From September to March, thousands of herons, garzones, egrets, grebes, ibis, ducks and water cockerels are concentrated in the lakes and nearby areas to feed and reproduce. The birds observed both aquatic and terrestrial, added 279 species, although that number could climb to 300, as at least 40 other species have been observed in neighboring places. The Isla Pajaros, located on 2.3 acres in front of the park, is extremely important to have the country’s largest colony of the martinete coroninegro and for being a nesting area for the ibis morito, the duck needle, the pink heron, the garzon, the real heron and the Cattle egret.
In the Palo Verde National Park in Costa Rica, nestle a bird called the Galan sin Ventura, endangered species and the only remaining population of red macaws in the dry Pacific. Some of the most abundant mammals are the howler monkeys, the white-faced monkey, the pizotes, deer, red squirrels, coyotes and the porcupines. In the Tempisque crocodiles have been observed for up to five meters.