Family Accipitridae
Ornate Hawk-Eagle
Spizaetus ornatus
In Spanish: Aguilillo Penachudo (Aguilucho)
- Resident
High over unbroken forest, Turrialba foothills to the Golfo Dulce. All year, with a guide and some luck.
A crest that stands straight up like a spike, or lies flat against the head. That crest is what people remember about the Ornate Hawk-Eagle, a raptor, or bird of prey, of big unbroken forest.
It is also the one bird on most lists you cannot plan for. It is usually seen overhead, and a guide who knows the territories is the difference.
Where to see it
- Hotspot page
- Named place
- Nearby lodge (numbers match the cards)
- Cerro El Silencio, above Turrialbaoverhead, with a guide and some luck, with the Black Hawk-Eagle.
- Piedras Blancas National Park and the Golfo Dulcethe one for the raptor list, after the south Pacific endemics.Not on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
- Los Cusingos and the San Isidro valleyoverhead around the valley, with the Fiery-billed Aracari.Not on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
- Golfito Wildlife Refugekeep an eye on the sky on the way up through the forest.Not on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
Nearby lodges
Within 20 km of a place on the map, in the same zone.
- 1
Rancho Naturalista4.3 km from Cerro El Silencio, above TurrialbaSee the lodge - 2
Esquinas Rainforest Lodge0.4 km from Piedras Blancas National Park (off the map)See the lodge - 3
Talari Mountain Lodge9.2 km from Los Cusingos (off the map)See the lodge - 4
Hotel Casa Turire11.8 km from Cerro El Silencio, above TurrialbaSee the lodge - 5
Bosque del Tolomuco17.2 km from Los Cusingos (off the map)See the lodge
How to recognise it
Large, about 56 to 68.5 cm long. Adults wear a rufous cowl, a rusty hood over the head and neck, with an obvious black crown and crest, black moustache stripes and bold barring across the underparts. The long crest, raised or laid flat, settles it. Young birds look like another species: the whole head and underparts white, with only thin black streaks on the crown and the tip of the crest. The call is a series of loud piping whistles. In display it can climb and dive in a roller coaster of 10 m drops.
Where it lives
Mostly unbroken primary forest, from sea level to 1,500 m and rarely to about 1,800 m; in Costa Rica it has been recorded wandering as high as 3,000 m. Our pages place it on both sides of the country: over Cerro El Silencio in the Caribbean foothills, and in the south Pacific around the Golfo Dulce and the San Isidro valley.
When to see it
All year, as a resident.
Trips that find it
- Best of Birding in Costa Rica's Caribbean9 nightsSee the trip
Tell us when you are travelling and our team in Costa Rica builds the trip around the birds you want to see.
Plan my birding tripHow we know this 1 sources, each read on the date shown
- Wikipedia: Ornate hawk-eagle read 4 November 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornate_hawk-eagle