Pearl Kite

How to find it

Look for it perched in the open on tall trees along grove edges and in savanna. Scan utility lines, power poles and the tops of dead snags and trees, where the kite spends a lot of time in plain view. Open country is the place to listen for its clear, sharp string of notes. Local guides are a good route to it: a Cartago guide located a nest high in a tree and showed it to a visiting birder.

How to recognise it

Adults have a black crown and black upperparts, wings and tail. The forehead, cheeks and legs are yellow, and the underparts are mostly white. A white collar edged in rufous completes the pattern.

In flight it looks mostly black above and white below. A Costa Rican profile describes the face and front of the crown as orange-buff, with underparts nearly all white, and says the bird is shaped like a kestrel but smaller.

The northern form, which occurs toward Costa Rica, has rufous flanks that the nominate southern form lacks. Young birds have white and chestnut tips on the back and wing feathers and a buff collar.

What it sounds like

Recording: Miguel A. Paixão, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Pearl Kite often hunts from a high, open perch and swoops down on lizards (especially anoles), small birds and insects. Like an American Kestrel, it may hover over prey before dropping on it.

The nest is a deep cup of sticks high in a tree. The clutch is 2 to 4 eggs, and there may be two broods in a season.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it prefers the edges of groves and trees standing in savanna. It is fairly common on the Pacific slope up to about 1000 m, and a nest at Cartago was the first confirmed in the Central Valley.

A Costa Rican natural history entry lists these conservation areas for it: Amistad Pacifico, Arenal, Guanacaste, Osa, Tempisque and Pacifico Central. Across its whole range it lives in open woodland, shrubby pasture, savanna, dry scrub, farmland and even suburbs, so open country with scattered trees is the pattern to look for.

Similar birds

It is easily taken for a small falcon or kestrel because of how it flies and perches. Compared with a kestrel it is smaller. Its black back, white underparts and yellow face show its kite identity, and the nearly all white underparts and orange-buff face help separate it.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Spanish name on the Costa Rican list is Elanio Enano, which means dwarf kite. A Costa Rican bilingual birding blog uses the same name.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks the Pearl Kite as a resident (R), and it has become established since it was almost unknown in 1989.

Photography tips

Its habit of sitting on open perches helps. Check tall trees at grove edges, utility lines, power poles and dead snags, where it perches in plain view.