Checker-throated Stipplethroat

How to find it

Walk quietly on forest trails and check understory mixed flocks. Listen for the sharp alarm call or the thin song, which usually lead you to the bird. It is usually found with Streak-crowned Antvireo in understory flocks, so a flock with the antvireo may also hold this antwren. Intact mature forest holds more of these shy species. The La Selva entrance road is a lowland spot that can stay productive in the heat of the day.

How to recognise it

This is a tiny antbird, about 10 cm long. Both sexes are olive-brown above and buff-brown below, with black wings and buff wingbars.

The male has a black throat with white spots, which gives the checkered look in the name. He also has a grey breast and dusky sides to the head.

The female has a buff throat and a buff central breast, with no checkered throat. Juveniles are brighter cinnamon and have pale streaks underneath.

Other stipplethroats look alike, but they live in South America, so the male's black and white throat is the clue to look for here.

What it sounds like

Recording: er-birds, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It often forages with other understory birds in mixed flocks. At Braulio Carrillo, guides have found it with other shy understory species while walking forest trails.

It eats insect eggs, larvae, adult insects and spiders.

The nest is a pouch of plant fibres and dead leaves, hung from a thin twig less than 2 m up. The female lays two eggs, and both parents feed the chicks.

Where it lives

Across its range it lives in wet forest in the foothills and lowlands, up to about 700 m. In Costa Rica it is a bird of the Caribbean slope, and it reaches about 900 m. That is a little above its usual Central American ceiling of roughly 750 m. Its range runs from southeast Honduras through Nicaragua and Costa Rica to western Panama. At Quebrada Gonzalez in Braulio Carrillo National Park it is seen regularly in primary rain forest at about 500 m.

When to see it

In Costa Rica it nests between March and August.

Similar birds

White-flanked Antwren is a similar small antwren found in the same forests, and it is described as pretty uncommon in Costa Rica. The male stipplethroat's black and white checkered throat sets him apart. Remember that the female lacks that throat and is buff below.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua the bird is called Hormiguerito Café. In Colombia it is Hormiguerito Barbiescamado, and in Ecuador Hormiguerito Ventrifulvo.

Status and conservation

The AOCR official list gives it as a resident (R) in Costa Rica, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern.

Photography tips

Look up into vine tangles and hanging dead leaves, where it forages above the ground. Mixed understory flocks tend to be quiet, so watch for a shaking leaf.