Since 2004 · Licensed by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT)

Graceful Black-throated Trogon in Costa Rica

Family Trogonidae

Graceful Black-throated Trogon

Trogon tenellus

In Spanish: Trogón Cabeciverde

  • Resident

Humid forest: the whole Caribbean slope, and the Pacific from central Costa Rica south. All year.

Where to see itTrips that find it

Can't find this name in your field guide? The bird is not new. The name is. In 2022 the species was split into four, and the official Costa Rican list follows the split, so this is the name we use.

Much of what is known about how it nests was learned here in Costa Rica. It has also been watched trailing troops of Central American squirrel monkeys, catching the insects they stir up.

Where to see it

Map of the places to see the Graceful Black-throated Trogon and the lodges near them
  • Hotspot page
  • Named place
  • Nearby lodge (numbers match the cards)

Nearby lodges

Within 20 km of a place on the map, in the same zone.

  • 1Photo coming
    Santa Lucía Jungle Hacienda, Autograph Collection2.7 km from Carara National ParkSee the lodge
  • 2
    La Selva Biological Station2.2 km from La Selva Biological Station, Sarapiquí (off the map)See the lodge
  • 3
    Arenal Observatory Lodge7.8 km from The Mistico hanging bridges at Arenal (off the map)See the lodge
  • 4
    Cerro Lodge3.1 km from Carara National ParkSee the lodge
  • 5
    Selva Verde Lodge7.5 km from La Selva Biological Station, Sarapiquí (off the map)See the lodge
See all lodges in this zone →

How to recognise it

About 23 to 26 cm, a bit over three-quarters the length of a school ruler. The male is the easy one: a black face and throat, a pale blue ring of bare skin around the eye, and a yellow lower breast and belly. His bill is mostly bright yellow to yellow-green, and on a black-faced trogon with a yellow belly, that bill settles it. The female is mostly brown above, with the same yellow belly. The call is low, weak and mellow, notes in twos and threes: cow cow, or cow cow cow.

Where it lives

Mainly humid primary forest, and in Costa Rica mature secondary forest as well. It is a bird of lower ground, mostly below about 900 m but up to 1,200 m here. In Costa Rica it is on the whole Caribbean slope, and on the Pacific slope from the centre of the country south into Panama.

When to see it

All year.

Trips that find it

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How we know this 1 sources, each read on the date shown
  1. Wikipedia: Graceful black-throated trogon read 4 November 2026https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graceful_black-throated_trogon