Gray-throated Leaftosser

How to find it

Listen first. Leaftossers are shy and hard to see but easier to hear, so tune your ear to a short series of rising, squeaky whistles, sometimes followed by a faster chatter. At Monteverde, birders found them easily by listening for rustling in dry leaf litter in the lower areas of the forest. Check the ground in the understory close to the trail. At Curi-Cancha, one Field Guides group spent long minutes shuffling along a trail to find a good viewing angle, and the bird then turned out to be very showy. On the lower trail at San Gerardo, one was seen on the ground as well.

How to recognise it

This is a fairly large leaftosser, 16 to 18 cm long. The mark to look for is a gray throat that contrasts sharply with a rufous breast. That contrast separates it from other leaftossers in its range.

The rest of the plumage is plain:

Back: chestnut-brown.

Rump: a brighter reddish.

Tail: dark gray-brown.

Breast: dark rufous with a few pale streaks.

Sexes look alike, so there is no need to tell males from females. Because it stays low and often in shade, note the throat first when it pauses on the ground.

What it sounds like

Recording: Niels Krabbe, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 5 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It forages mostly on the ground, flipping leaves aside and hopping instead of walking. It usually forages alone or in pairs and does not join mixed-species flocks, so there is no busy flock to follow through the trees.

Recorded prey includes beetles, spiders, cockroaches and tiny frogs. At Monteverde, leaftossers scurry along the forest floor and fling leaves aside in a hurry while they search for food.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica this leaftosser lives between about 600 and 1,500 m elevation. The Costa Rican form, canigularis, lives in the foothills of Costa Rica and western Panama (western Chiriquí).

Across its whole range it stays on or near the ground inside humid montane and foothill forest, mainly between 1,000 and 2,000 m, and it is described as rare and local. A documented Costa Rican record comes from the Monteverde cloud forest in Puntarenas. It has also been recorded on the Caribbean slope at about 1,400 m, at the San Gerardo Field Station in the Children's Eternal Rainforest.

Similar birds

Costa Rica has two other leaftossers. Tawny-throated (Middle American) Leaftosser is found on the Caribbean slope and foothills. Scaly-throated Leaftosser is a lowland bird seen at Carara. The Gray-throated is the middle elevation leaftosser, and its gray throat against a rufous breast is the mark to check.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans use the name Tirahojas Gargantigrís. Other countries use different Spanish names, such as raspahojas collarejo in Colombia and tirahojas gorguigrís in Panama.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican bird list classes it as a resident species, while it is listed as Near Threatened across its range because its habitat is vulnerable to deforestation and fragmentation.

Photography tips

A photographer at Curi-Cancha found the bird on the ground near the trail. It walked off toward better light and ended up facing away from the camera. Expect a low, moving subject in shade, and be ready to wait for a clear angle.