Since 2004 · Licensed by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT)

Bare-necked Umbrellabird in Costa Rica

Family Cotingidae

Bare-necked Umbrellabird

Cephalopterus glabricollis

In Spanish: Pájaro-sombrilla Cuellinudo (Pájaro Danta)

  • Resident
  • Regional endemic

The wet Caribbean slope at Arenal and Braulio Carrillo. Higher up the slope from March to June.

Where to see itTrips that find it

Picture a crow with an umbrella on its head. The crest, the tuft of feathers on top, is shaped like one, and the bird under it is black, built like a crow and about as long: the largest perching bird in its range.

It is a regional endemic, found only in this small corner of the world: Costa Rica and its neighbours. At Arenal it is one of the two birds birders ask us about, with the Lovely Cotinga, and on the dawn walk it is the bird our guides listen for.

Where to see it

Map of the places to see the Bare-necked Umbrellabird and the lodges near them
  • Hotspot page
  • Named place
  • Nearby lodge (numbers match the cards)
  • Arenal Volcano National Parkone of the two birds birders ask us about here, on the trails of the one lodge inside the park.
  • Braulio Carrillo National Parkthe park's own description names it, a regional endemic of these wet slopes.Not on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.

Nearby lodges

Within 20 km of a place on the map, in the same zone.

  • 1
    Arenal Observatory Lodge0.1 km from Arenal Volcano National ParkSee the lodge
  • 2
    Tapirus Lodge3.0 km from Braulio Carrillo National Park (off the map)See the lodge
  • 3
    Arenal Oasis Ecolodge & Wildlife Refuge6.0 km from Arenal Volcano National ParkSee the lodge
  • 4
    Chachagua Rainforest Hotel & Hacienda8.0 km from Arenal Volcano National ParkSee the lodge
See all lodges in this zone →

How to recognise it

Big and black: about 41 cm for the male, 36 cm for the female. The male has a strong blue gloss on his back, and his crest makes the head look oversized. The bare neck of the name is under the chin: bright orange-red skin at the throat, then a vermilion breast that forms an inflatable sac and turns scarlet when stretched full. That settles it. The female is a duller black, with a shorter crest that leaves her head looking flat, and only small bare orange patches each side of the neck. From March to May or June, three or four males display together at a lek, a spot where males gather to court females, just below the treetops.

Where it lives

Primary forest on the wet Caribbean slope. For most of the year it stays in the lowlands, at about 100 to 500 m for males and around 200 m for females. In the breeding season the birds move up to 1,000 to 1,500 m. Those figures come from a study made in the Tilarán Mountains of Costa Rica.

When to see it

All year, as a resident. Breeding runs from March to June in Costa Rica, and in those months it is higher up the slope; the rest of the year it is down in the lowland forest. Tell us your dates and we plan the walks for where it should be.

Trips that find it

Tell us when you are travelling and our team in Costa Rica builds the trip around the birds you want to see.

Plan my birding trip
How we know this 3 sources, each read on the date shown
  1. Wikipedia: Bare-necked umbrellabird read 4 November 2026https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare-necked_umbrellabird
  2. Internet Archive copy: FMPro?-DB=UBIPUB.fp3&-lay=WebAll&-error=norec.html&-Format=detail.html&-Op=eq&id=3202&-Find read 4 November 2026https://web.archive.org/web/20140523230441/http://darnis.inbio.ac.cr/ubisen/FMPro?-DB=UBIPUB.fp3&-lay=WebAll&-error=norec.html&-Format=detail.html&-Op=eq&id=3202&-Find
  3. Wikipedia (Spanish): Cephalopterus glabricollis read 4 November 2026https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopterus_glabricollis