White-tailed Kite

How to find it

Look in open country such as pastures, farmland and savanna. Scan for a white bird hovering, or sitting on an exposed perch such as a treetop. A guide advises checking vacant fields and other open ground, where you may find one hovering. Range-wide, kites start hunting just after dawn and often hover into the wind with the head tipped down. They also hover over grassy fields beside highways, so watch from the car.

How to recognise it

Adults are mostly white with a pale gray back. The shoulders and a patch under the shoulder are black. The eye is red, the bill is black, and the legs and cere are yellow. The bird is about 41 cm long.

It is whiter and longer winged than the other small hawks in Costa Rica, and its flight style is distinctive. Range-wide, it is described as gull-like in color but falcon-like in flight, with a rounded tail, mostly white underparts, black wingtips and black shoulders.

Young birds look different. They are streaked with rusty color underneath, and the back is strongly washed or scaled with reddish brown.

What it sounds like

Recording: Linzy L., CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The kite flies slowly about 9 to 25 m up and scans the ground for prey. It hovers in the air as it hunts, which earned the name dancing hawk.

Birds are solitary or live in pairs, and they sometimes harass large hawks and the Crested Caracara. In urban Heredia, researchers recorded kites gathering at communal roosts and noted it as social behavior.

The nest is a sizable cup of twigs lined with fine material, usually in an isolated tree or shrub. The clutch is 3 to 5 white eggs with heavy brown blotches.

Where it lives

This is a bird of open country: savanna, farmland with scattered trees, and urban and suburban areas. It is a common resident of deforested areas in the lowlands, and locally it reaches up to 1500 m elevation.

It can be seen across much of the country, usually below 1500 m, often alone or in small family groups, flying or on an exposed perch. Around Monteverde a tour company says it favors open pastures, grasslands and marshes.

When to see it

Breeding runs January to April. In the Central Valley, nests with eggs were recorded in March and chicks in April in 2011, though a Heredia study found breeding all year.

Similar birds

A Pacific coast resort bird guide says the kite is larger than the tiny, similar Pearl Kite, and much smaller than any of the hawks in that area. Young birds with rusty streaking underneath look quite unlike the clean white adults, so check the hovering flight too.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans use the AOCR name Elanio Coliblanco. Other names are Gavilancillo and Gavilán Bailarín, the dancing hawk. Gavilancillo Blanco and Espíritu Santo are also listed.

Status and conservation

It is a resident (R) on the AOCR list, first reported in Costa Rica in 1958 and breeding there since the early 1960s, and the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern with an increasing population trend.

Photography tips

Watch from the car beside grassy fields along highways, where kites hover. Early morning, just after dawn, is when range-wide kites start hunting. A treetop perch in open country is another good place to look.