Collared Forest-Falcon

How to find it

The most reliable method is to find a calling bird before dawn or at dusk, then call it in. Playing a recording can draw in a nearby bird, but it should not be repeated over and over. Do not expect to see one. A pre-dawn start in humid, hilly forest improves the chance of a sighting. Early morning and late afternoon are prime hunting times. A guide helps because they know the calls and the likely spots.

How to recognise it

This is the largest forest-falcon, about the size of a Cooper's Hawk. The build is long and slim, with short rounded wings, a very long rounded tail and long legs.

There are two morphs:

Pale morph: dark back and crown, white chest and belly, striped tail, yellow legs. Pale adults show a whitish to buff collar and underparts.

Dark morph: mostly black with yellow legs, and no pale collar.

In the pale and buff birds the collar contrasts with the dark upperparts. The cere is yellow in one description and dull greenish in pale adults in another, so check it in good light.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

It hunts from low perches in forest, either pouncing on prey or chasing it fast. Prey includes large lizards, rodents, birds, and insects flushed by army ants. It can take surprisingly large prey, from small frogs up to birds the size of chachalacas, and at Aquiares migrant warblers near one went quiet or vanished.

Camera traps in Costa Rica caught it several times pouncing on black spiny-tailed iguanas, biting the back of the neck to subdue them before flying off. It nests in natural cavities of large trees.

Where it lives

It is resident across the lowlands and foothills of both slopes, and in some places climbs to about 1500 m. It lives in many kinds of forest, from dry forest to mid-elevation rainforest, and from mature stands to scrubby secondary growth. It is most frequent in the dry and moist forests of the Pacific slope, and sometimes ranges up into cloud forest. It is absent from the high central part of the country. On the Caribbean side it is rare in most areas, but more numerous around the Río Frío area.

When to see it

It is a resident, so it is present all year. It breeds in the dry season and early rainy season.

Similar birds

It is often confused with the smaller Barred Forest-Falcon and with the Bicolored Hawk, and a young Bicolored Hawk can look much like an adult Collared. Those two give barking calls, unlike the Collared's 'aw'. The Laughing Falcon sings much faster, and the Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon gives a longer chanting series of 7 to 10 notes, like a trogon.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Spanish name used in Costa Rica is Halcón de Monte Collarejo. Elsewhere it is also called halcón montés grande and halcón selvático de collar. 'De monte' appears in the names of many Costa Rican animals and generally means of the mountain, of the forest, or wild.

Status and conservation

Resident (R) on the AOCR list, with a worldwide status of Least Concern.

Photography tips

Expect low light, as in a photo of one in dim morning light on the river trail at Carara, so plan for it. Forest-falcons sometimes show up at army ant swarms and at hummingbird leks. If you find either, sit quietly for a while and one may appear.