Formerly, cattle behavior studies were performed by direct visual observations or video analysis, which require considerable resources and time. Recently, accelerometers have been successfully used for remote monitoring of behavior in dairy calves. However, this validation was made under temperate weather conditions, and to the authors understanding no similar data exist for the tropics where heat stress affects cattle behavior. Thus, the y-axis values recorded by HOBO Pendant G accelerometers tied to the right rear leg (perpendicular to the floor) in confined Holstein calves (n = 5; 53 ± 20 d old) in Puerto Rico were evaluated as indicators of lying (L) and standing (S). Data were recorded at 1-s intervals from 0700 to 0900h (n = 23,408) on February 7, 2019. The L and S events were visually recorded as gold standards for validation. Transitional movements between L and S were excluded. To determine the best way to classify the obtained data, its overall mean and standard deviation (SD) during the visual L and S events were calculated and used to create a series of respective accelerometer categories (L or S) in the ranges between 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2, 2.2, 2.4 or 2.6 SD bellow to above the mean. Proc FREQ (SAS) was used to determine the sensitivity (likelihood that a visually recorded event was also recorded by the accelerometer), visual-accelerometer misclassifications (L-S or S-L) and non-classified observations in each created category. All categories successfully identified over 99% of the recorded L and S events, with less than 0.04 and 0.16% of L-S and S-L misclassifications, respectively. However, the amount of non-classifications increased as the category range decreased (0.47 to 55% from 2.6 to 0.4 SD, respectively). The category that maximized the sensitivity for the L (99.89%) and S (99.98%) events, while maintaining low levels of the L-S (0.02%) and S-L (0.11%) misclassifications and non-classified values (1.23%) was the 2 SD bellow and above the mean. The evaluated accelerometers may be useful tools for remote monitoring of L and S behavior in dairy calves in the tropics.