Metabolic rates are often predicted from allometric equations relating metabolism to body mass. Al- though the relationship between metabolic rate and body mass varies among taxa of birds (Lasiewski and Dawson 1967), and with time of day (Aschoff and Pohl 1970), it has not been shown to vary predictably with climate (Scholander et al. 1950). Few meta- bolic data are available on birds living in the lowland tropics where ambient temperatures are usually high. A few birds from hot climates have low metabolic rates (Hudson and Kimzey 1966, Weathers 1977). It is therefore of interest to determine if metabolic rates of tropical species are lower than those predicted from allometric equations based largely on temperate species. We report standard metabolic rates of four tropical passerines, all suboscines, and one tropical nonpasserine, a dove.