Black-faced Grosbeak

How to find it

Listen for the calls of Black-faced Grosbeaks and Carmiol's Tanagers, which together usually point to a mixed flock moving through the forest. Follow the sound along the trail. When you hear the grosbeaks, raise your binoculars and check whether other species are following. A birder advises staying with the flock and not leaving the trail. On a March 2024 tour it was called surprisingly common around the lawns at La Selva, though the same trip list notes that in some years it can be quite hard to find.

How to recognise it

This is a small, stocky seed-eating bird, about 16 cm long and about 30 g. Adults have a black bill and a gray belly and rump, while the back, wings and tail are olive.

In Costa Rica the black face, yellow head and breast, and gray belly make it distinctive.

Costa Rican birds belong to the subspecies scapularis. It is smaller than the northern nominate form, and its scapulars and lower back are olive-green like the upper back, where the nominate form has slate gray.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

This is a chunky, social bird. It forages in small, often noisy groups, usually moving through the upper and middle levels of the forest and through fruiting trees.

In the Caribbean lowlands it is one of the noisy species that often travels with other birds, and birders call it an active flock leader. One group watched a flock made up mostly of Black-faced Grosbeaks that also held woodcreepers, a trogon, a woodpecker and many tanagers, all moving together through the forest at Quebrada Gonzalez.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is common in the Caribbean lowlands and foothills, from sea level up to about 900 meters. Records come from Heredia, from Braulio Carrillo National Park, from Tenorio Volcano National Park in Alajuela, from El Zota in the Caribbean lowlands and from the Cano Negro area in the far north.

Across its range it lives in the canopy and middle levels of dense wet forest, tall second growth, woodland edges and clearings, from sea level to about 1000 meters. Mixed flocks are biggest in mature humid forest.

When to see it

It is a resident and not a migrant. It breeds from April to June in Costa Rica, and another account gives April to July.

Similar birds

The similar Yellow-green Grosbeak replaces it in eastern Panama and South America, so the two do not overlap in Costa Rica. Here, the black face, yellow head and breast, and gray belly make the Black-faced Grosbeak distinctive.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The official Costa Rican Spanish name is Picogrueso Carinegro. The AOCR list adds the local nickname Sarapiqueña, which points to the Sarapiquí region of the Caribbean lowlands.

Status and conservation

It is listed as R (resident) on the AOCR list, rated Least Concern by BirdLife International and considered common in Costa Rica.

Photography tips

Let the voice lead you. Follow the calls along the trail to the flock, then watch the upper and middle levels of fruiting trees, where it forages. Stay with the flock rather than leaving the trail.