Barred Forest-Falcon

How to find it

The most reliable way to see one, says a Costa Rica birding writer, is to find a calling bird before dawn or in the morning, then call it in. He suggests humid, hilly forest before sunrise. It also turns up at army ant swarms and at hummingbird display grounds, so sit quietly near either one, because a Barred Forest-Falcon may come in. Forest-falcons usually avoid crossing openings, so look inside forest or along forest trails. Be ready for disappointment: on a 2023 tour one called again and again before dawn near San Vito and the group could not see it.

How to recognise it

Adults are dark slate gray above, with a white-tipped tail that carries narrow white bars. The underparts are white with fine dark barring. Across its range the bird is about 31 to 39 cm long, so it is a small forest-falcon.

The face and the skin at the base of the bill are yellow-orange. The legs are orange-yellow and the eyes are brown.

Juveniles look different. A juvenile lacks the adult's barring and chestnut collar, and one Turrialba birder first mistook a young bird for a Collared Forest-Falcon.

What it sounds like

Recording: Claudio Martins de Souza, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The bird usually stays hidden in the forest at low to mid levels and is hard to detect except by its voice. It often sits quietly on a branch and waits, then ambushes prey with a short fast chase, much like an Accipiter hawk.

Across its range it hunts birds, reptiles, arthropods and bats by chasing them through forest. It also catches birds and arthropods at army ant swarms, and it nests in tree cavities.

Where it lives

In Central America it is generally restricted to mature tropical forest. In Costa Rica one writer describes it as fairly common in humid forest from the lowlands up into cloud forest.

He names humid, hilly forest at Braulio Carrillo, Monteverde, Tapanti, the Osa Peninsula, Pocosol, Las Heliconias and El Copal. It has also been recorded on the Pacific slope out of San Ignacio de Acosta and near Pejibaye in the Turrialba area, and it is on the bird list of Cloudbridge Nature Reserve. One photographer notes it can be heard in most forested areas of the country.

Similar birds

Across its range it resembles the scarcer Lined Forest-Falcon. The Barred has a brown eye and barring across most of the underparts, and it shows three pale tail bars against two on the Lined.

Costa Rica has three forest-falcons. When you do see a Barred, its small size almost immediately rules out Collared and Slaty-backed. The Collared is the largest, about the size of a Cooper's Hawk, and the most common and widespread of the three, most frequent in dry and moist Pacific slope forest.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Besides Halcón de Monte Barreteado, Spanish sources also list Halcón montés agavilanado, Halcón montés chico and Halcón selvático barrado for this bird.

Status and conservation

It is a resident on the AOCR list, and the IUCN rates it Least Concern because its range is huge, though the population is thought to be shrinking.

Photography tips

Forest-falcons usually avoid crossing openings, so look for them inside forest or along forest trails. One bird that came to the La Paz aviary was photographed on a foggy, dark morning, and the photographer noted the poor light, so expect low light.