Family Thraupidae
Bay-headed Tanager
Tangara gyrola
In Spanish: Tangara Cabecicastaña (Pavito)
- Resident
The canopy of wet forest: a green tanager with a chestnut head, working under the branches. All year.
Bay is an old word for reddish brown, the colour of a chestnut horse, and it is the colour of this tanager's head. The rest of the bird is mostly green.
It is quieter to look at than the Golden-hooded Tanager, and it spends much of its time picking insects off the undersides of branches, so a clear look at the head is often all you get. Costa Rica's birds belong to a form that runs from Nicaragua to western Panama. The sources we read describe the South American birds more fully than ours, so on this one the guide's eye counts for more than the book's.
Where to see it
- Hotspot page
- Named place
- Nearby lodge (numbers match the cards)
- Los Cusingos and the San Isidro valley
- Rancho Naturalista's reserve, above TurrialbaNot on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
- Carara National ParkNot on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
Nearby lodges
Within 20 km of a place on the map, in the same zone.
- 1
Talari Mountain Lodge9.2 km from Los CusingosSee the lodge - 2
Rancho Naturalista0.2 km from Rancho Naturalista's reserve, above Turrialba (off the map)See the lodge - 3Photo comingSanta Lucía Jungle Hacienda, Autograph Collection2.7 km from Carara National Park (off the map)See the lodge
- 4
Bosque del Tolomuco17.2 km from Los CusingosSee the lodge - 5
Hotel Casa Turire9.6 km from Rancho Naturalista's reserve, above Turrialba (off the map)See the lodge
How to recognise it
About 14 cm and 19.5 grams, shorter than a new pencil. Male and female look alike.
Mainly green with a chestnut head. On an otherwise green tanager, that head settles it. Young birds are duller, their green heads flecked with chestnut.
The song is slow and thin: seee, seee, seee, tsou, tsooy.
So this page keeps to the head and the green body, and leaves the rest to your guide.
Where it lives
Forest, especially in wetter areas. The Costa Rican form ranges from Nicaragua to western Panama.
When to see it
All year.
Trips that find it
- Best of Birding in Costa Rica9 to 10 nightsSee the trip
- Best of Birding in Costa Rica's Caribbean9 nightsSee the trip
- Caribbean Lowlands Birding Tour11 nightsSee the trip
- Dancing with Quetzals11 nightsSee the trip
- Birding in Costa Rica's Eco-Zones11 nightsSee the trip
- The Southern Highlands and Pacific9 nightsSee the trip
- Costa Rica's Top Birding Spots11 nightsSee the trip
Tell us when you are travelling and our team in Costa Rica builds the trip around the birds you want to see.
Plan my birding tripHow we know this 1 sources, each read on the date shown
- Wikipedia: Bay-headed tanager read 4 November 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay-headed_tanager