Red-throated Ant-Tanager

How to find it

Find it by ear first, listening for the torn-paper call from dense edge growth. Search river and stream banks, overgrown fields and second growth, and keep your eyes low in the foliage. Army ant swarms are a good way to see forest understory birds, and a Costa Rica birding guide names the forests at Arenal, La Selva Biological Station and Carara National Park as good places to watch them. On a trip we build, that is the habit worth learning: let the sound lead you, then wait quietly for the bird to show itself.

How to recognise it

Males are dusky red above, with a dark red head, a bright red throat and a black bill. A scarlet crown patch is usually hidden, so do not count on seeing it.

Females look quite different: olive-brown above, with a bright yellow throat and a cream-colored bill.

Young birds are brown and lack the throat and crown patches.

Adults are about 18 to 20 cm long, a medium-sized bird. In Costa Rica it is duller overall than its Pacific slope relative, with a brighter and more contrasting red throat.

What it sounds like

Recording: Carrie Seltzer, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This is a bird of the thick, low layers of the forest. It forages in dense edge growth and moves nervously through the foliage looking for fruit and insects. It sometimes visits army ant swarms to catch insects fleeing the ants.

It moves slowly through the undergrowth, in pairs or groups of up to eight. It stays low and is typically spotted only after its call or song gives it away. It does not migrate.

Where it lives

Across Central America it lives in lowland forest and secondary growth. It breeds as a resident, mainly on the Caribbean slopes from southeastern Mexico to eastern Panama.

In Costa Rica it is common in the lowlands and foothills of the Caribbean slope, from sea level to about 600 m, and it occasionally goes a little higher. Look for dense edge growth, including river and stream banks, overgrown fields and dense second growth.

Similar birds

It is very hard to tell from the Red-crowned Ant-Tanager. This species has darker lores, and its crown stripe lacks a black edge, but both differences are subtle and voice is the best way to separate them. In Costa Rica the Red-crowned lives on the Pacific slope, while the Red-throated lives only on the Caribbean slope. The close relative Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager (Driophlox atrimaxillaris) is found only in Costa Rica.

Status and conservation

It is a resident (R) on the AOCR list, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern.