Smooth-billed Ani

How to find it

Look in open and semi-open places, often around livestock, and expect small groups rather than single birds. Scan wires and fence posts as well as the ground. On the Osa Peninsula, birders found it on a fence post in cattle pastures near Matapalo Beach, where it forages alongside grazing cattle and takes insects the animals flush. The quiet coastal road there is best birded early in the morning. A wet cattle field with cattle egrets at a turn-off from the main road on the Osa held a couple of birds, seen in December 2022. Groups also follow tractors that plough fields, which keeps them in the open for viewing.

How to recognise it

The adult is about 35 cm long and looks all black, with a long tail.

The bill is deep and flattened side to side, with a high arch, often with a bump at the base. The upper bill is smooth and taller, with a steeply arched base and no clear parallel grooves.

Up close, look for a bronzy sheen on the head and neck, violet-toned wings, and black facial skin and feet.

Young birds often lack the high-arched bill profile of adults, so a juvenile can be harder to name. Bills with slight irregularities can be either species of ani, so voice and location help.

What it sounds like

Recording: mitidi, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This ani lives in small groups and eats insects. Groups are noisy and share a communal territory in open or semi-open fields and farmland.

Groups share one communal nest: several females lay their eggs in it and all group members tend it.

Its flight is weak and wobbly, but it runs well and usually feeds on the ground. It perches on wires, hops on the ground and clambers in foliage, with the long tail flopping loosely.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is a common resident of the south Pacific slope, and its range reaches about halfway up the Pacific lowlands. It ranges from sea level up to at least 1,200 m in some places.

It lives in scattered trees and thickets, scrubby pastures, farmland and second growth forest. Look for it in open and semi-open places, often around livestock. It is the ani of wetter habitats than the Groove-billed.

Similar birds

The Groove-billed Ani is the main confusion. The Smooth-billed is larger, with a taller, smooth upper bill, while the Groove-billed has two or three grooves along the top of its bill. The two overlap widely from Costa Rica to Peru and sometimes form mixed flocks. In Costa Rica the Smooth-billed has the more limited range. The Greater Ani is rare here, much bigger, with glossier blue or purple plumage, pale eyes and a differently shaped bill.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica the species goes by several local names: tijo, tinco, zopilotillo and garrapatero piquiliso. Tijo is also the usual name for the Groove-billed Ani, so the name alone can confuse.

Status and conservation

The AOCR lists it as a resident (R), and it is common on the south Pacific slope, where it has largely pushed the Groove-billed Ani south of the Parrita area.

Photography tips

Groups that follow grazing cattle or tractors ploughing fields snap up the insects flushed out, which keeps them in the open. Watch a pasture from a fence line and wait for birds to come to the posts. Early morning along quiet roads is best.