Slate-colored Grosbeak

How to find it

Listen first for its frequently given song, since it is often heard more than seen. Then look up into the canopy and sub-canopy of mature forest. Watch fruiting trees, where it may come to feed. Mixed flocks in the forest interior are the other good bet, as it is most often seen with them. Check exposed branches in the morning for a sunbathing bird. After a call right overhead, look up, because one may perch in view above you.

How to recognise it

This is a stocky, dark slaty bird about 19 to 20 cm long. Look first for two marks:

- a thick, bright orange-red bill

- a white throat patch

Males show black on the face and upper breast.

Females are duller than males. They have little or no black on the face and a grayer, brownish underside, and the bill is orange.

Young birds are plain sooty gray with a horn-colored bill and no white throat, so they look quite unlike their parents.

What it sounds like

Recording: Mike Ostrowski, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It forages from mid-level to canopy and sometimes joins mixed-species feeding flocks. Across its whole range it is usually found in pairs, but birds in Costa Rica are often solitary. Its diet includes seeds and insects.

In the morning it may sunbathe on exposed branches, which can give a clearer view of a bird that otherwise stays high. One may also perch in view overhead after calling.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is a bird of the Caribbean side, in the lowlands and foothills. It occurs from sea level to about 1,100 m, and up to 1,200 m in the southeast. It is rare in the drier lowlands south of Lake Nicaragua.

It uses the upper and middle levels of tall humid forest, forest edges and shade plantations. In more open areas it usually stays lower.

When to see it

Young birds just out of the nest have been seen in May and June in Costa Rica, and the breeding season includes May.

Similar birds

Costa Rica has five saltators. Three of them, the Grayish, Buff-throated and Black-headed, are common garden birds, and the Streaked Saltator is almost only in the southern Pacific. The Slate-colored is the dark one with a red bill and white throat. Its closest relative, the Black-throated Grosbeak, is darker, with more black on the face and a fully black throat.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican Spanish name is Picogrueso Piquirrojo, also used in Nicaragua, Ecuador and Panama. Other regions differ: picogordo pizarra in Colombia, piquigrueso gris in Honduras and picogordo gargantiblanco in Venezuela. Other Costa Rican saltators carry nicknames, such as chayotero for the Black-headed and sinsonte verde for the Buff-throated, but none is listed for this one.

Status and conservation

It is a resident on the AOCR list, the IUCN rates it Least Concern, and it is considered uncommon in Costa Rica.

Photography tips

Wait for the song, then look up. One may perch in view overhead after calling, as happened for a tour group on the Arenal waterfall trail. Morning sunbathing on exposed branches and fruiting trees give the best chances for a clear view.