Blue-throated Goldentail

How to find it

Watch flowering trees and bushes, where it can appear to feed on nectar. On wooded trail sections, check flowering trees, and remember the bird is often shy and flighty. It will leave forest cover to visit shrubs such as Stachytarpheta and Hamelia and herbs such as Heliconia, so check flowers in open or partly cleared areas. Listen for hidden singing males, which perch in the high understory or low canopy. Singing birds can be hard to spot on hidden perches, but some give close views from the mid-story or an exposed perch overhead.

How to recognise it

Look first at the bill: straight, coral-red, with a black tip. In Costa Rica locals also call the bird Pico de Plástico, a nickname that fits that vivid bill. The throat of the male is a metallic blue-violet, and the upperparts are green that shifts to a golden-green tail. The tail colour is a key mark in photos.

Only the male has the blue throat. The male is a bit larger than the female and has brighter colours, though the two look alike in pattern.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

It feeds mainly on nectar from the flowers of shrubs and large herbs, plus epiphytes, and it sometimes takes small arthropods. Nectar plants include Stachytarpheta, Hamelia, Heliconia, Inga and Psidium, among others.

Males gather in singing groups called leks. Up to ten males may gather in one, each singing all day from a horizontal perch in the high understory or low canopy. The bird is often shy and flighty because other hummingbirds chase it. The species is thought to be fairly sedentary, though it may wander locally when plants flower.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it lives in valleys and lowlands, in humid forest and disturbed areas. It is usually found up to about 950 m. One bird was captured at 2,000 m in Braulio Carrillo National Park, the highest Costa Rican record.

It is described as common in the Pacific slope lowlands and foothills, and less common but present in the Caribbean lowlands. The nominate form ranges irregularly from southeast Mexico and Belize south to southern Costa Rica, on both slopes.

When to see it

Males gather in leks in the dry season and at the end of the rainy season, so singing males are easiest to locate then.

Similar birds

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is larger, with a longer rufous tail, a green throat and breast, and a paler, more curved bill. The male Blue-throated Goldentail looks a bit like it, but its bill is red except for the tip and its throat is blue, not green. Blue-headed Sapphire looks similar but has a blue crown and head sides, a green throat and a blue tail.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it Colibrí Colidorado, and informally Pico de Plástico. Elsewhere it is zafiro gorgiazul in Panama and Mexico and zafiro colidorado in Nicaragua. In Costa Rica many small hummingbirds, including this genus, are casually called gorrión, although the Costa Rican ornithological association reserves that word for the House Sparrow, which Costa Ricans call electricista.

Status and conservation

The AOCR lists it as a resident (R), and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern, with a large range and an apparently increasing population.

Photography tips

Flowering shrubs in open or partly cleared areas offer the best chance of a clear view, since singing males stay hidden on high perches. Check the tail colour in your photos, as it is a key mark.