Plain Chachalaca

How to find it

Start by listening, because the birds are very inconspicuous and easily missed unless they are singing. Go in the morning, and aim for May to July when they are most vocal. Activity is low from 9 to 3:30, and dust in the dry season makes early hours the better choice. The higher hills of the Nicoya Peninsula are the place to focus, where it is described as common. Scan thorny thickets and forest edge for a long-tailed bird sitting in a tree, and expect a group rather than a single bird.

How to recognise it

Look for a large, long-necked bird with a small head and a long tail. Adults weigh about 650 g and measure about 56 cm in Costa Rica, and across the species length runs about 48 to 58 cm.

The head and neck are grayish.

The body and wings are dull olive-brown, and the belly is paler than the back.

The tail is blackish with a green gloss and a pale tip.

The bill is black and the feet are dull gray.

In the breeding season the bare throat patch turns deep red in both sexes.

Males and females look alike, and males are only slightly larger on average.

What it sounds like

Recording: José Gerardo Velasco, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This is a bird of groups. In Costa Rica it usually moves in company, and across its range groups can reach about 15 birds. Unlike most temperate-zone game birds, it spends most of its time in trees, though it feeds both on the ground and in trees. It is mostly active on cool mornings and in the evening.

Chachalacas are shy and wary. They prefer to run quickly along the ground, or to leap and glide through tangled brush, rather than fly off. Breeding usually starts at the start of the rainy season.

Where it lives

On the Pacific slope of Costa Rica it favors small groups in tall thorny thickets, scrub, second growth and forest edge. It is also seen in tropical dry forest and savanna, usually in groups.

Its range here covers the hills of the Nicoya Peninsula and the dry lowlands of the northwest. Chachalacas of this genus cope better than other members of the family with open areas, mixed crops and gardens, while most other cracids prefer forest.

When to see it

In Costa Rica the birds sing mainly from May to July, and that is the best time to detect them. Mornings are when a flock's chorus is heard most often.

Similar birds

Costa Rica has two chachalacas. The Plain is limited to the dry northwest, in Guanacaste. The Gray-headed is the one in other parts of the country, so location is the simplest way to tell them apart. The Gray-headed is also smaller and has rufous in the primary feathers.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican sources use the Spanish names Chachalaca and Chachalaca Olivácea. Pavas, pavones, chachalacas and pajuilas are common names for the whole guan and chachalaca family.

Status and conservation

It is a resident on the AOCR list, and the IUCN rates the species Least Concern, so it is not currently considered threatened.

Photography tips

The birds are very inconspicuous and easily missed unless they are singing, so listening is the best way to find them. Once you have a call, trace it to a tree at a thicket edge in the morning.