Costa Rica Wrap-Up: Big Birds, Small Birds, with Bursts of Color . . . . (Quick go find your sunglasses . . . .)

3/12/2026

Chestnut-headed Oropendola, Sarapiqui rain forest, Costa Rica, November 3, 2025.

Let's Start with the Toucans . . . .

There are 43 species of Toucans in the family Ramphastidae, one of 9 families in the order Piciformes. This order includes the family Picidae, with 240 species of woodpecker! See the branching tree to the right, known as a cladogram. In this post we will be looking at two members of the toucan family, as well as one member of the Capitonidae family, the New World Barbets. (Ref: Wikipedia).

And our first family member, the Keel-billed Toucan . . . .

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 324mm, 1/125 sec., f/7.1, ISO 5000.

Keel-billed Toucans live in tropical lowland forests from southern Mexico through Central America to northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela. They feed on fruit, as well as some arthropods and small vertebrates. Keel-billed Toucans are mostly black with a bright yellow bib, covering the chest and throat and going over the eye. They sport a brightly colored bill, with splashes of red, orange, green and blue. Their bright body colors and love of fruit has made them the darlings of the Kellogg company, who created "Toucan Sam" in 1963 to advertise their fruit flavored cereal, Froot Loops!

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 500mm, 1/1000 sec., f/7.1, ISØ 10,000.

Toucans are centerstage in nature's tropical cartoon show, with their huge bills and vivid colors. The bills are the largest compared to body size of any bird, but light in weight due to their honeycomb like structure composed of keratin and bone, and filled mostly with air. Blood vessels in the bill act like a radiator to keep the bird cool on hot days. Ref: Audubon.

Below, our subject pulls off chunks of banana and flips its head back to land the fruit in the back of his throat. This is standard feeding behavior for toucans. The large light bill with serrated edges has likely evolved as the most efficient way for a large bird to feed on large soft fruit often at a distance from its perch.

To the right, detail of the serrations on the upper mandible.

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 324mm, 1/800 sec., f/7.1, ISO 10,000.

Yum!

Below, one of my favorite images of the shoot. Like a cartoon, a Keel-billed Toucan can look goofy and cute!

Collared Aracari

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 270mm, 1/250 sec., f/5.6, ISØ 10,000.

Collared Aracaris live from southern Mexico to South America. They are communal birds, often gathering and flying in flocks. (Ref: Birds of the World)
They nest in cavities with nesting pairs often helped by one or more adults that aid in incubating and feeding the young (Ref: Birds of the World).

Collared Aracaris favor mature lowland evergreen forests up to ~5000 feet, eating fruit, as well as insects, small lizards, bird eggs and bird nestling.

Outside of breeding season Collared Aracaris will form groups of six to eight birds that forage together and may roost together in tree cavities.

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 500mm, 1/250 sec., f/7.1, ISO 3200.

In western Costa Rica the Collared Aracari is seen along with the Fiery-billed Aracari, however the latter has a brilliant orange-red maxilla and a red belly band, not black with red edges as seen in the Collared Aracari.

Above we see the red band or collar after which the bird is named. Above and below our subject is extending its neck reaching for food. We can see how the toucan bill is well suited for frugivores (fruit eaters).

Above a Collared Aracari looking for some banana to grab with its serrated bill, and below, tossing the banana into the back of its throat.

Cornell's Birds of the World describes the Collared Aracari as an "odd bird" , confirmed by these photos!

The bird will flip its long tail forward when entering its cavity nest.

Below we see three Collared Aracari waiting in line for their turn at the banana buffet.

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 135mm, 1/840 sec., f/6.3, ISO 10,000.

Red-headed Barbet

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 500mm, 1/500 sec., f/7.1, ISØ 8000.

As noted in the introduction, the Red-headed Barbet is one of 15 species of New World barbets in the Capitonidae family, one of 9 families in the order Piciformes. Other families in this order include the toucans, 2 of which we have just seen, as well as the 240 species of woodpecker found worldwide, including the familiar species we see in the U.S.

Here we see a male Red-headed Barbet, with a brilliant red head and breast that merges into yellow underparts and a green back.

Red-headed Barbets live in the mountain forests of Costa Rica and Panama, as well as in Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru.

Red-headed Barbets eat fruit, as well as insects and other arthropods including beetles, caterpillars, earwigs, flies and scorpions. (Ref: Birds of the World). They are cavity nesters, in Costa Rica breeding from March to June.

These images were captured on November 2, 2025 in the Sarapiqui rainforest on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica.

Chestnut-headed Oropendola

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 500mm, 1/640 sec., f/8.0, ISO 6400.

Oropendola's are passerines (songbirds) in the family Icteridae, a large family with 106 species all living in the Western Hemisphere. To the right is a cladogram of the family to show that the oropendola's have relatives we see regularly in the U.S., including blackbirds, meadow larks, bobolinks, cowbirds, grackles, and orioles. (Ref: Wikipedia)

Range map, Chestnut-headed Oropendola

Chestnut-headed Oropendulas live year round from southeast Mexico, through Central America and into South America, see the range map to the left.

In Costa Rica Chestnut-headed Oropendulas live in foothill and lowland rain forests, and in Panama they can be found in large parks and suburbs. (Ref: Birds of the World). They eat fruit and nectar of large flowers, as well as frogs, lizards and arthropods.

The Chestnut-headed Oropendula seen here is going after bananas in the Sarapiqui rainforest on November 3, 2025.

Montezuma Oropendola

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 500mm, 1/200 sec., f/7.1, ISØ 10,000.

Montezuma Oropendolas live from eastern Mexico to Panama, favoring the edge of humid lowland forests. See the range map to the right. They are omnivores, eating fruits, seeds, arthropods, small vertebrates, and other birds, including juvenile Black-faced Grosbeaks and Blue-gray Tanagers (Ref: Birds of the World).

Montezuma Oropendolas build colonies of basket-like nests that hang from the branches of large trees, see the photograph below captured on March 10, 2024 in the Bocas del Toro region of Panama, on the Caribbean coast.

Canon R6 with RF100-500mm at 500mm, 1/1600 sec., f/7.1, ISO 800, EV +1.0.

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 223mm, 1/320 sec., f/5.0, ISO 32,000.

Above, a male or female Montezuma Oropendola in the Sarapiqui rainforest of Costa Rica on November 3, 2025. These are large birds, note their size compared to the hanging bananas in the frame above, and the tree trunk below. Males and females look alike, but females are smaller.

The next two birds, the Crested Guan and the Gray-headed Chachalaca are in the family Cracidae, in the order Galliformes (also known as landfowl), an order that also includes pheasants, quail, guineafowl and turkeys, cladogram to the right. (Ref: Wikipedia).

Crested Guan

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 254mm, 1/800 sec., f/5.0, ISO 6400.

Crested Guans are large pheasant-like birds with long thin necks, bluish bare skin on the face, a bare red dewlap* on the throat, a short bushy crest and a long tail. They live from Mexico into South America. They do well where they are protected, but throughout much of their range they are heavily hunted and are considered Near Threatened (Ref: Birds of the World)

* dewlap: A longitudinal fold or flap of loose skin hanging under the neck or throat.

Crested Guans are frugivores, the type of fruit they eat varies by where they live. In Costa Rica their main diet is the fruit of nutmeg. Crested Guans often occur in pairs or in groups of six to eight individuals. (Ref: Birds of the World).

Gray-headed Chachalaca

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 324mm, 1/1000 sec., f/5.6, ISO 6400.

Gray-headed Chachalacas are in the same family as Crested Guans, but a different genus. They have a gray head and tail and chestnut primary wing feathers. They forage in trees in groups of six to twelve, only occasionally venturing to the ground. They are frugavores, eating the spikes of guarumo trees, guavas and guara fruits, as well as leaves and occasional insects.

These images were captured in the Sarapiqui rainforest on November 2nd and 3rd.

Gray-headed Chachalacas nest on platforms built of sticks, leaves and grass stems one to three meters above ground from January to May.

Let's Wrap It Up with a Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher . . . .

Canon R5 Mkii with RF100-500mm at 500mm, 1/4000 sec., f/7.1, ISO 1000.

Long-tailed Silky-Flycatchers are songbirds (passerines) in the family Ptiliogonatidae, which contains only four species, Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher, Gray Silky-flycatcher, Black-and-yellow phainoptila, and Phainopepla, a desert dweller whose range extends into California, Arizona and New Mexico, and is well known to birders in Tucson.

Long-tailed Silky-Flycatchers live above 6,000 feet, where they eat insects and small fruits. Their range is limited to the Costa Rican highlands, but within that range they are common.

Males and females are similar in appearance, but the male has more blue on the breast and wings. My guess is that this is a female. These images were captured in morning light at ~9,000 feet, as she is enjoying a breakfast of berries, which she seems to eat whole without problems.