Since 2004 · Licensed by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT)

White-crested Coquette (Lophornis adorabilis)White-crested Coquette

Family Trochilidae

White-crested Coquette

Lophornis adorabilis

In Spanish: Coqueta Crestiblanca

  • Resident
  • Regional endemic

Tiny regional endemic hummingbird of the southern Pacific foothills

The White-crested Coquette (Coqueta Crestiblanca, Lophornis adorabilis) is a hummingbird of only about 7 cm and 2.7 g. It is found only in Costa Rica and Panama, and in Costa Rica it lives mainly on the southern Pacific side.

It can be hard to find, because birders know little about its movements and it may be at one site for a time and gone the next week. On trips we build in the south, guests look for it at flowering trees and verbena patches.

How to find it

Southwestern Costa Rica is probably the most reliable area. Look around flowering Inga and balsa trees, where one local birder saw it easily at flowering Inga around the Golfo Dulce and Osa. Inside forest it stays in the treetops, but at forest edges and in hedgerows of Stachytarpheta it comes lower and is easier to watch. Patience helps, since sightings are patchy and numbers build mostly when certain flowers are in bloom.

How to recognise it

This is a tiny hummingbird, about 7 cm long and 2.7 g. Both sexes have a white band across the lower back and a rufous tail and belly. The male adds the features that give the bird its name: a white crest and long green cheek tufts on a tiny green head. The female has no crest or cheek tufts. Her face is dusky bronze, her throat and chest are white with green speckles, and her tail has a black band near the tip.

Behaviour and diet

It feeds mostly on nectar from small tubular flowers and also takes tiny arthropods from leaves. It often feeds in the canopy but comes lower in gardens and along roadsides with suitable flowers. Larger hummingbirds usually push it aside at blossoms. Males court by flying side to side in arcs in front of a female.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is placed between 300 and 1,220 m. It lives in the forest canopy and drops to shrub level at edges and in second growth. Across its range it uses humid forest interior and edges, taller secondary growth and open hedgerows. In Costa Rica it lives mainly on the southern Pacific side, with a range reaching north to the Cordillera Central, and it sometimes strays to the Caribbean slope in the central part of the country.

When to see it

Breeding is from December to February, early in the dry season. Tour groups have recorded it in January on a southern trip.

Similar birds

Three coquettes have been recorded in Costa Rica: Black-crested, White-crested and Rufous-crested, but the Rufous-crested is a vagrant not confirmed for years. White-crested is the one from the southern Pacific, while Black-crested is looked for on the Caribbean side, so check crests carefully.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The usual Spanish name in Costa Rica and Panama is coqueta crestiblanca. Other Spanish names are coqueta de cresta blanca and coqueta adorable.

Status and conservation

The AOCR lists it as a regional endemic (R-END), and it is Least Concern globally though its population is decreasing.

Photography tips

Forest edges and clearings are the best places to look, as the nest is often fairly exposed there, 5 to 18 m up. Flowering verbena patches along driveways and gardens bring it low enough for photographs.

How we know this 20 sources, each read on the date shown
  1. Flickr (Spanish natural history text) read 2026-11-04https://www.flickr.com/photos/jobando/30659867752
  2. Destination: Wildlife read 2026-11-04https://www.destinationwildlife.com/blog/costa-rica-birds
  3. Costa Rica Living and Birding read 2026-11-04https://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/tag/white-crested-coquette/
  4. Nigel Forrow Photography read 2026-11-04https://www.nigelforrow.co.uk/white-crested-coquette-male-feeding
  5. Oiseaux.net read 2026-11-04https://www.oiseaux.net/en/photos/stephane.merle/white-crested.coquette.1.html
  6. Cornell Birds of the World read 2026-11-04https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/whccoq1/cur/introduction
  7. Naturalista Costa Rica (Wikipedia, Spanish) read 2026-11-04https://costarica.inaturalist.org/taxa/6340-Lophornis-adorabilis
  8. Wikipedia mirror (ScientificLib) read 2026-11-04https://www.scientificlib.com/en/Biology/Animalia/Chordata/Aves/LophornisAdorabilis01.html
  9. Anthony Lujan read 2026-11-04https://www.anthony-lujan.com/hummingbirds/white-crested-coquette
  10. Avibase (xeno-canto) read 2026-11-04https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=277C3C50&sec=xenocanto
  11. Wikipedia read 2026-11-04https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-crested_coquette
  12. Field Guides trip list 2023 read 2026-11-04https://fieldguides.com/triplists/cr123PRINT.html
  13. Field Guides trip list 2020 read 2026-11-04https://fieldguides.com/triplists/cos20p.html
  14. Field Guides trip list 2018 read 2026-11-04https://fieldguides.com/triplists/cos18.html
  15. Tropical Birding read 2026-11-04https://tropicalbirding.com/product/comprehensive-costa-rica-birding-from-border-to-border/
  16. WINGS Birding Tours read 2026-11-04https://wingsbirds.com/tours/costa-rica-spring
  17. Costa Rica Living and Birding read 2026-11-04https://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/2010/11/11/three-coquettes-seen-on-the-caribbean-slope-of-costa-rica/
  18. Ecoregistros read 2026-11-04https://www.ecoregistros.org/ficha/Lophornis-adorabilis
  19. Osa Birds, Osa Priority Birds read 2026-11-04https://osabirds.org/osa-priority-birds/
  20. Costa Rica Focus read 2026-11-04https://www.costaricafocus.com/most-beautiful-birds-of-costa-rica/