Black-hooded Antshrike

How to find it

Look in vine tangles and dense growth near gaps and forest edges, from lowlands to foothills. Keep your eyes low, because it stays in tangles of bushes and vines. Listen for the repeated nasal calls while it follows mixed flocks. It often sounds close but stays out of sight, so be patient and let it come to you. Trails in the southern Pacific region have given one photographer bold, curious birds that came to look at him.

How to recognise it

The male is mostly black, with small white dots on the wings and a white patch hidden between the shoulders. The belly is dark gray. The bill is stout and hooked, like a shrike's.

The female looks quite different. She is mostly brown below, with a contrasting black tail and white wing spots. Her head and underparts are finely streaked with white.

In Costa Rica the bird is about 16 cm long and weighs about 27 g. It is a very dark antshrike with a rather long tail.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

It searches slowly for insects and spiders on leaves and branches, hopping and fluttering in short, abrupt moves. Pairs are common. Pairs or single birds forage from near the ground up to about 15 m, and they often join mixed-species flocks.

In Costa Rica it breeds from February to September. The nest is a fairly large cup of fine fibers, placed in a branch fork low in foliage. The clutch is two eggs.

Where it lives

It lives in dense, tall understorey and at forest edges. It also uses secondary growth of all ages and sometimes mangroves, and it likes vine tangles and shrubby spots.

It mostly occurs below 1,000 m but reaches 1,200 m in Costa Rica. Its range runs from southern Guanacaste south along the Pacific slope into western Panama. It is common in the south and uncommon to rare farther north, up to Tenorio Volcano.

When to see it

It is a non-migratory resident that stays in its territory all year. Breeding runs from February to September in Costa Rica.

Similar birds

Its closest relative is the Black-crowned Antshrike (Batará Plomizo). The male Black-crowned is mostly gray with a black cap, unlike the all-black male Black-hooded. The Black-crowned lives on the Caribbean slope and in the northwest Pacific, and the Black-hooded replaces it on the southern Pacific side.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The official Costa Rican Spanish name is Batará Negruzco. A Spanish-language source also gives the alternate name Choca de Capucha Negra.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident endemic (R-END), and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern, though its population is thought to be decreasing.

Photography tips

One photographer found the birds bold and curious, often coming to look at him on trails. They tended to appear while he was busy shooting something else, so keep a camera ready. Perched birds in morning light at forest edge near Drake Bay suggest that edges are the place to try.