Long-billed Hermit

How to find it

Look near flowering Heliconia and listen for the sharp call, because the bird moves through the forest visiting isolated flowers. Since it follows set routes of up to about 1 km, watching a flowering patch along a trail can bring it back again. Forest trails in the lowlands are the place to start. It is hard to watch because it does not settle at one rich patch, so slow walking and quiet pauses suit it well. A video record also places it on the northern Caribbean slope route around Arenal and La Fortuna.

How to recognise it

This is a large hummingbird, about 13 to 16 cm long, and the bill does most of the identifying.

- Bill: very long and curved, black on top and pale orange below.

- Face: a dark mask with pale buff stripes above and below, and a white stripe behind the eye.

- Upperparts: bronzy green.

- Belly: pale greyish buff.

- Tail: long central feathers tipped white.

- Rump: cinnamon, which helps separate it from other hermits in its range.

Females have a shorter but more strongly curved bill than males.

What it sounds like

Recording: kalvinchan, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Long-billed Hermit is a trap-line feeder. It visits a circuit of flowers such as Heliconia, Costus, Aphelandra and Passiflora, and it also eats small arthropods. Hermits do not defend a territory. They follow set routes through the forest, up to about 1 km long, visiting flowers along the way.

Males gather in singing groups called leks of up to 25 birds and wiggle their tails in display. Females alone build the nest, incubate and feed the young. The nest is a cone-shaped cup of plant fibres and spider silk hung under a drooping leaf, such as a Heliconia or banana leaf.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it has been recorded from sea level up to 1,000 m. It is found in tropical forests across the lower elevations and is one of the more widespread hermits there. It occurs on both the Caribbean slope and the Pacific slope.

Across its range it lives in the understory and edges of rainforest, tall secondary forest, humid semi-deciduous forest, cloud forest and gallery forest.

When to see it

A Spanish source says males gather in courtship leks from December to June, so those are the months to expect singing groups. That season covers the whole range, not Costa Rica alone.

Similar birds

The Green Hermit is also in Costa Rica. It has a reddish bill, a stripe down the centre of the throat, fairly short white-tipped central tail feathers and a loud 'zurk' call. The Stripe-throated Hermit has a mostly black bill with a yellow base to the lower half, a pale rufous rump and small, often faint throat streaks. The cinnamon rump and the black mask with a white stripe behind the eye point to this species.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica and Colombia the species is called Ermitaño Colilargo. Other countries use names such as ermitaño piquilargo (Ecuador, Panama) and ermitaño de pico largo (Peru).

Status and conservation

It is a resident (R) on the AOCR list and is rated Least Concern by the IUCN.

Photography tips

A photographer in Costa Rica noted that it can hover in one spot longer than some hummingbirds, and that the tail can be held straight or fanned. Waiting at Heliconia flowers gives the best chance of a steady view, since the bird returns along its route.