Purple-throated Fruitcrow

How to find it

Look for fruiting trees, especially figs and laurel family trees, and scan them for a while. Costa Rica has no canopy towers, so fruiting trees are the best way to see cotingas. Listen for a flock arriving, because knowing the calls helps a lot in the right places. The calls are easy to pick out even when the birds are hidden. Check forest edges and look 6 to 15 m up. One guide says it is more common near and south of Limón, and the southern Caribbean coast is described as offering excellent chances.

How to recognise it

The male is glossy black with a broad, shiny purple throat patch that can be expanded. The female is all black and duller, without the throat colour.

Both sexes share these marks:

- a silver-gray bill

- black legs

- a stocky body

- broad, round wings

- a short tail

Because a female, or a male seen from below, can simply read as a dark, chunky bird, wait for the male's throat. On a 2016 tour at La Selva, a male's throat glowed in direct sunlight, as bright as a male hummingbird's gorget.

The purple throat is feathered and the bill is pale grayish. That separates it from the Bare-necked Umbrellabird, a male of which has a red bare neck and a large umbrella crest. The female umbrellabird is all black with a black bare neck and a smaller crest.

What it sounds like

Recording: Steve Collins, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Fruitcrows travel in small, noisy flocks that swoop through the canopy. They often move with oropendolas, woodpeckers, woodcreepers and Rufous Mourner. They eat insects as well as fruit.

They are bold and curious, which makes them fairly easy to spot. A bird often sits sunning itself with wings spread, like a vulture. When courting, males flare the bright throat, shake the tail and give piercing calls.

Unlike the hidden nests of other cotingas, fruitcrow nests are easy to see, and the noisy group nearby makes them more conspicuous.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it lives on the Caribbean slope and lowlands, at the northern end of a range that runs south from southeastern Nicaragua along the Caribbean side. One source gives sea level to about 500 m. A Costa Rican source calls it a fairly common resident of the lowlands and foothills, from sea level to about 450 m, or up to 600 m in the southeast. One guide says it rarely goes above 300 m.

It uses the midstory to canopy of lowland evergreen forest and is often seen at forest edges. In Costa Rica it is usually seen 6 to 15 m up in a tree.

When to see it

A Costa Rican source says breeding runs from May to August.

Similar birds

The Bare-necked Umbrellabird is the other crow-like bird in Costa Rica. The male has a red bare neck and a large umbrella crest, while the female is all black with a black bare neck and a smaller crest. Oropendolas are crow-sized, but they have colorful plumage and are related to orioles.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans and Panamanians call it Querula Gorgimorada. Other countries use different names, such as frutero gorgirrojo in Nicaragua, cuaba in Colombia and pájaro toro in Venezuela. The genus name Querula refers to a noisy, complaining bird, and purpurata means dressed in purple.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list marks it as a resident (R), and the IUCN rates it Least Concern.

Photography tips

Fruiting trees are the best places to wait. On a 2016 tour, three fruitcrows were seen far out along the trails at La Selva, so a long lens may help. Direct sunlight makes the male's throat glow, so try to be in position when the light is on the bird.