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

Black-crowned Antpitta (Pittasoma michleri)Black-crowned Antpitta

Family Conopophagidae

Black-crowned Antpitta

Pittasoma michleri

In Spanish: Tororoi Pechiescamoso (Hormiguero)

  • Resident
  • Regional endemic

Secretive forest-floor bird of the wet Caribbean slope, often near army ants.

The Black-crowned Antpitta is a big, thick-billed bird of the dark forest floor on Costa Rica's very wet Caribbean slope. It is a resident endemic on the AOCR list, and one Flickr photographer calls it one of the hardest birds to see in the region.

On trips we build, guests most often try for it at the Quebrada Gonzalez ranger station in Braulio Carrillo National Park. Patience and a good army ant swarm count for more than luck.

How to find it

If you find an army ant swarm in good habitat at Quebrada Gonzalez, stay with it, be patient and stay on the trail while you wait. Quiet scanning of forest trails at dawn and in late afternoon improves your chances, and finding one can take hours or even days. Look in very wet forest with many streams and muddy soil. One group that could not see it from the trail crept about 12 feet toward shaking vegetation at an ant swarm and got views.

How to recognise it

This is a large antpitta with a thick bill, long legs and a short tail. Males have a mostly black head with rufous speckling on the face and chestnut-rufous ear patches. The crown and throat are black, and the underparts are strikingly scalloped in black and white. The female differs from the male, which has the mostly black head. Across its whole range it measures about 18 to 19 cm and weighs roughly 99 to 110 g. Despite that size, it stays inconspicuous on the forest floor.

What it sounds like

0:22

Recording: keesgroenendijk, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It is almost entirely terrestrial and hops quickly over the forest floor. When alarmed it sometimes perches low on a horizontal branch. It is usually met as a lone bird following army ant swarms, though pairs are sometimes found in the understory. It eats invertebrates such as insects, spiders, amblypygids and scorpions, and also takes small vertebrates such as frogs and small reptiles.

Where it lives

It lives in the understory of primary forest and tall secondary growth, on dark, humid, mature rainforest floor. It is a local resident on the very wet Caribbean slope, from the Cordillera de Tilarán south to Panama. In Costa Rica it mostly occurs between 300 and 1000 m, with about 300 to 800 m usual and up to 1000 m in the southeast.

Similar birds

Its only close relative, Rufous-crowned Antpitta, lives in Colombia and Ecuador, not Costa Rica. Its head is largely rufous, while the Costa Rican bird has a black crown and throat.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Spanish name used in Costa Rica is Tororoi pechiescamoso. Other Spanish names listed include Tororoí capinegro and Chululú de corona negra. In English it is also called Black-crowned Gnatpitta.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it R-END, a resident endemic, and the IUCN rates it Least Concern across a small range of about 49,000 square km.

Photography tips

Quiet scanning of trails at dawn and in late afternoon helps, and so does listening for its calls. Expect dark conditions on the forest floor. A guide who played a recording at Quebrada Gonzalez got an answer, but the group never located the bird, so patience at an ant swarm may pay better.

How we know this 25 sources, each read on the date shown
  1. Aves de Costa Rica read 2026-11-04https://avesdecostarica.com/Pittasoma-michleri.html
  2. BirdPhotos.com read 2026-11-04https://www.birdphotos.com/photos/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=237972&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
  3. Oiseaux.net read 2026-11-04https://www.oiseaux.net/en/oiseaux/black-crowned.antpitta.html
  4. Animalia.bio read 2026-11-04https://animalia.bio/black-crowned-antpitta
  5. Flickr (bird photographer) read 2026-11-04https://www.flickr.com/photos/95362111@N06/29317464012
  6. Cornell Birds of the World read 2026-11-04https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/blcant1/cur/introduction
  7. Wikipedia read 2026-11-04https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-crowned_antpitta
  8. Birda read 2026-11-04https://app.birda.org/species-guide/16502/Black-crowned_Antpitta
  9. Costa Rica Focus read 2026-11-04https://www.costaricafocus.com/birding-braulio-carrillo-national-park-a-complete-guide/
  10. Birding for Conservation read 2026-11-04https://www.birdingforconservation.com/2019/01/braulio-carillo-national-park-quebrada-gonzalez/
  11. Birdingcraft read 2026-11-04https://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/tag/black-crowned-antpitta/
  12. BirdForum Opus read 2026-11-04https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Quebrada_Gonzalez_Ranger_station,_Braulio_Carrillo_National_Park
  13. BirdForum read 2026-11-04https://www.birdforum.net/threads/birdingcrafts-costa-rica-patch.131932/
  14. Birdingcraft read 2026-11-04https://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/tag/bicolored-antpitta/
  15. Cornell Birds of the World read 2026-11-04https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/rucant3/cur/appearance
  16. Neotropical Birding (ResearchGate) read 2026-11-04https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262935992_Birding_at_the_cutting_edge_rufous-crowned_antpitta_Pittasoma_rufopileatum_in_ecuador
  17. Birds Colombia read 2026-11-04https://birdscolombia.com/2020/04/21/tororoi-pechiescamado-black-crowned-gnatpitta-pittasoma-michleri/
  18. Avibase read 2026-11-04https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=DC49C2900B37F81C
  19. Birding Craft read 2026-11-04https://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/2021/10/25/how-to-see-more-antpittas-when-birding-in-costa-rica-part-one/
  20. Birding Craft read 2026-11-04https://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/2022/01/30/why-is-the-black-crowned-antpitta-so-rare/
  21. Birding Craft read 2026-11-04https://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/page/15/
  22. Exotic Birding (Selva Verde Lodge list) read 2026-11-04http://www.exoticbirding.com/costarica/selva-verde/special-birds.html
  23. EcuRed read 2026-11-04https://www.ecured.cu/Reserva_Forestal_Cordillera_Volc%C3%A1nica_Central
  24. Hotel Rivel blog read 2026-11-04https://hotelrivel.online/a-striking-shadow-in-the-undergrowth-the-black-crowned-antpitta/
  25. Birding Craft read 2026-11-04https://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/tag/costa-rica-antpittas/