Hook-billed Kite

How to find it

Start early in the morning and listen for calls. By mid-morning it may be soaring, so scan the sky. A pile of fresh snail shells under a perch is a good sign. In the Ujarrás chayote fields a group was told the normally rare kite is common there, and found nine in all plumages, including a scarce black morph perched on a post. On the Pacific side, the long entrance road to a lodge near Cerro offers wide sight lines, with chances at this kite alongside Gray-headed and Plumbeous Kites. Visitors to Caribbean foothill lodges may see it only rarely.

How to recognise it

Start with the shape: about 41 cm long, slim, with a fairly long tail.

The bill is thick, dark and strongly hooked. The eye is whitish and the legs are yellow. In every plumage the tail carries pale gray and black bands.

Plumage varies a great deal:

- Gray phase, mostly males: slate above, barred gray and white below.

- Black phase, mostly males: almost all dull black.

- Rufous phase, mostly females: gray face and a rufous nape collar.

Immatures are blackish brown above with a white nape collar. Below they are white, sometimes barred with blackish, and their tail bands are thinner and more irregular than an adult's.

In flight, look for broad, rounded wings strongly barred in black and white, a feature described for the species across its range.

Behaviour and diet

In Costa Rica it hunts land snails under the forest canopy, and it also takes Ampullaria snails in swamps with grass or shrubs. It is solitary, sedentary and not very active, and it usually flies low.

Across its range it is described as sluggish and retiring, often staying perched in leafy canopy. It holds tree snails with one foot and pries the shell open with its bill, which is what that heavy hooked bill is for.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it lives in forested swamps, gallery forest, secondary forest and semi-open areas near water. It is found in the lowlands and foothills on both slopes.

It seems most common in moist middle-elevation forest on the Pacific slope, for example near Santa Elena (Monteverde), in riparian areas in Guanacaste and in Central Valley forests. Birds sometimes stray into the Central Valley, where a pair may stay in one area for several months, breed, and then apparently leave.

When to see it

Breeding in Costa Rica takes place from March to May. At Kekoldi on the Caribbean slope, 16 kites passed during a raptor count in early September and were judged to be migrants rather than local residents.

Similar birds

Bill size and plumage vary so much that identification can be very hard. Look for the downcurved hook at the bill tip, striped underparts and a banded tail. Snail Kites prefer open wetlands and eat aquatic snails, while Hook-billed Kites live in forest and eat land snails.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican Spanish name is Gavilán Piquiganchudo, also written without the accent in Costa Rican sources. Other Spanish names used elsewhere include Gavilán Pico de Gancho and Caracolero selvático.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), and Costa Rica's national species page calls it a resident of wide distribution, usually uncommon or rare and local.

Photography tips

Look for a perched bird in the open. A Field Guides group had a stunningly close view of an adult male perched in a tree not far from the road at Finca Cristina. Fresh snail shells under a perch can show where to wait, and early morning is the time to listen for calls before it starts to soar.