Sharpbill

How to find it

Staying with a moving mixed flock is the way to find this bird. A birding guide advises keeping up with the flock, listening for the Sharpbill and staying with the birds as long as you can. That is how you eventually catch one.

Look high, into the treetops, rather than at eye level. Canopy access helps: the hanging bridges at Sky Adventure Park, near La Fortuna, reach primary montane forest and give canopy views, and a guided tour of the Arenal area looks for Sharpbill there.

Braulio Carrillo National Park, the Manuel Brenes road near San Ramón and the La Selva entrance road are also named as places to look.

How to recognise it

The Sharpbill is a stout bird about 15.5 cm long, with a small head, a pointed bill and short strong legs. The iris is brick red, a detail worth checking if you get a clear view.

The upperparts are olive green. The face and underparts are pale yellowish, brightest on the belly.

The underparts are spotted: the face and throat look scaly, and the breast and flanks carry black spots.

The adult male has a dark crown mixed with olive and a hidden scarlet crest that can be raised. Do not expect to see the red on a bird tucked into foliage.

What it sounds like

Recording: Rajan Rao, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Sharpbill lives high in the canopy of wet forest, so look up into the treetops. It is often found in pairs or small groups and joins mixed-species flocks.

It eats mainly fruit and sometimes insects, and it has been seen hanging upside down to catch insect larvae.

Across its range, males may display for females in exploded leks, singing and displaying on small neighbouring territories.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica the Sharpbill is found between about 700 and 1400 m elevation. It occurs from the Guanacaste range (Volcán Miravalles) southward and along the Caribbean slope to Panama. It may once have occurred in the Dota region.

Across its range the species is local and patchy, mainly in foothill forest, and the Costa Rican records fit that pattern.

When to see it

At Hitoy Cerere, one birder found Sharpbills fairly common and calling often during March and April. A nest was found at Tapantí National Park on 3 June 2008, in the rainy season, at 1,280 m on the Caribbean slope.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it Picoagudo. The genus name Oxyruncus comes from Greek words meaning sharp and bill.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list treats the Sharpbill as a resident (R), and in Costa Rica it is an uncommon, local bird, though across its range it is not thought to approach the thresholds for threatened status on the IUCN Red List.

Photography tips

At Quebrada Gonzalez the canopy is very tall and the foliage dense. One birder heard a Sharpbill sing three times without seeing it, and suspects it sings from a still, hidden perch high up. Patience and a view of the flock, rather than a single perch, give the best chance.