Family Semnornithidae
Prong-billed Barbet
Semnornis frantzii
In Spanish: Barbudo Cocora (Cocora, Cacareón)
- Resident
- Regional endemic
Foggy, mossy mountain forest, from the Cordillera de Tilarán south. All year.
Cwa-cwa-cwa-cwa. A pair singing in duet, throaty and far-carrying, and sometimes several birds join in a chorus.
It is a regional endemic: found only in the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama, in forest so wet it is hung with moss and often in fog. The name is in the bill. A notch at the tip of the lower half, the mandible, makes a small prong. At night as many as sixteen roost packed into one tree cavity.
Where to see it
- Hotspot page
- Named place
- Nearby lodge (numbers match the cards)
- Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve
- Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve
- Tapantí National Park, above the Orosí valleyNot 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
Trapp Family Lodge4.8 km from Santa Elena Cloud Forest ReserveSee the lodge - 2
Hotel Quelitales7.8 km from Tapantí National Park, above the Orosí valley (off the map)See the lodge - 3
Mirador de Quetzales13.6 km from Tapantí National Park, above the Orosí valley (off the map)See the lodge - 4Photo comingParaíso Quetzal Lodge14.7 km from Tapantí National Park, above the Orosí valley (off the map)See the lodge
- 5
Dantica Cloud Forest Lodge19.6 km from Tapantí National Park, above the Orosí valley (off the map)See the lodge
How to recognise it
About 17 to 18.5 cm, a little shorter than a new pencil, and thickset. The bill is the mark that settles it: pale silvery grey to bluish, dark at the tip, with that notch near the end of the lower half. The male has a glossy black tuft of feathers at the back of the crown, the top of the head; the female lacks it. Both sexes sing, and they often sing together, which is the duet you hear.
Where it lives
Extremely humid evergreen forest in the mountains, the kind hung with epiphytes and moss and often in fog. In Costa Rica it runs from the Cordillera de Tilarán south through the mountains into Panama's Veraguas Province.
When to see it
All year.
Trips that find it
- Costa Rica Classic Birding, All Inclusive8 nightsSee the trip
- Birding in Costa Rica's Northern Zone11 nightsSee the trip
- Birding in Costa Rica's Top Three Destinations9 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: Prong-billed barbet read 4 November 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prong-billed_barbet