Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant

How to find it

Learn the bug-like call before you go, because the bird is too small to spot easily and guides advise finding it by voice. Its habit of calling over and over helps. Look high in the canopy, especially in an open emergent tree where it may perch on a stem, which gives a clearer view than dense foliage. Try any Caribbean lowland rainforest site, such as La Selva or Laguna del Lagarto. One guide describes close views on back roads in the Sarapiqui lowlands. Lowland rivers, lagoons and marshes where vegetation hangs over the water are also worth checking.

How to recognise it

This is a tiny bird with a short tail, about 6.5 cm long and about 5 g in weight.

Adult males show:

- a black crown, plain and unstreaked

- white lores and eye-ring

- a dark slate face

- a bright olive green back

- a white throat and middle of the breast

- a belly that fades to pale yellow

The crown is duller in females, and the female head is mostly gray, so check the head color of any bird you find. Young birds have a dusky brown cap and browner upperparts, with a buff tint on the wing edges and underparts.

What it sounds like

Recording: Fundacion ProAves, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It makes quick upward flights to take small insects and spiders from the underside of leaves, and it sometimes hovers in front of the leaf. It is usually alone, then in pairs or family groups after nesting.

It often sits quietly in the canopy, yet it tends to call over and over, which helps you find it. Breeding in Costa Rica is reported from March to May. The nest is a hanging pouch with a round side entrance, about 15 cm long.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it lives from sea level up to roughly 600 m, or locally higher, in the humid lowlands and the foothill forest edge. One guide says it rarely goes above 300 m and is not usually found over the mountains on the other side.

It stays mostly in the forest canopy. It comes lower at forest edges and clearings, and in second growth and semi-open woodland. It is restricted to the Caribbean lowlands and is absent from the drier region south of Lake Nicaragua.

When to see it

Breeding is reported from March to May in Costa Rica. A tour leader found it less vocal than usual during a dry spell on one trip, so dry weather may make it harder to find by sound.

Similar birds

The Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant is another small resident tyrant, and beginners could confuse the two. It is told by its long black crown feathers with broad rufous edges, while the Black-capped has a plain black cap.

The Short-tailed Pygmy-Tyrant of the Amazon looks almost the same, but it does not occur in Costa Rica.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it Mosquerito Colicorto. Other Spanish names are used elsewhere: Tirano Enano Gorrinegro in Panama and Ecuador, and Tiranuelo Capirotado in Colombia.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list gives it the status R, resident, and the IUCN rates it Least Concern, with fairly common numbers in Costa Rica.

Photography tips

It often sits quietly in the canopy, and it can perch on a stem in an emergent tree with fairly open canopy. That gives a clearer view than dense foliage, so scan open emergent trees once you have located the call.