Bullock's Oriole

How to find it

In Costa Rica's mountains, look for it flitting among flowering trees. Fruit and hummingbird feeders are a good place to watch, since it comes to sugar-water feeders and to fruit put out at feeders. Listen for the harsh chattering rattle, which can help you locate it as it takes off. Check the wings of any orange and black oriole for the large white patch. Because it is a rare visitor, a careful look at every orange oriole will serve you best.

How to recognise it

The adult male has an orange face, a black crown, a black line through the eye and a black throat patch. The back and tail are black, the underparts are orange, and a large white wing patch shows well, even in flight.

Females and young birds are duller. They have a gray-brown back, a yellow face and breast, a pale belly, white wing bars and an olive-gray crown. Some young males show black on the throat.

It is a slim oriole, 17 to 19 cm long, with a sharply pointed bill. Adult males are easy once you look for the orange eyebrow, the black eye line and the solid white wing patch.

What it sounds like

Recording: truthseqr, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This is an active, acrobatic feeder. It often hangs upside down to reach insects such as caterpillars and beetles, and it also takes nectar and fruit. Its sharp, pointed bill suits taking nectar and fruit.

A study cited in a California wildlife account found that a Bullock's-type oriole defended a small winter feeding territory in Costa Rica. The feeding there was on nectar.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is a visitor to the mountain areas, where it works through the treetops and flits among flowering trees. It also visits feeders hung around mountain grounds. The wintering range is given as reaching northwestern Costa Rica.

On its breeding grounds, away from Costa Rica, it likes open woodland, especially along rivers with large cottonwoods, sycamores and willows.

When to see it

A mountain lodge site says visitors can see this oriole in Costa Rica's highlands from about September to April, as a seasonal winter visitor.

Similar birds

The male looks like a male Baltimore Oriole, the other regular orange-and-black winter oriole in Costa Rica, but Bullock's has an orange face, more white in the wing and a different tail pattern. Hooded Oriole has an orange crown and nape, while the Bullock's male has a black crown. Female and young Bullock's can be mistaken for a dull Baltimore: the Bullock's female is paler with a grayish back, while the female Baltimore is a more orange-buff color.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican natural history lists give the local names cacique veranero and bolsero de Bullock. Other Spanish names in use for the species include turpial de ojo rayado, calandria cejas naranjas and bolsero calandria.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it A, accidental, and the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern.

Photography tips

Feeders hung around mountain grounds, with sugar water or fruit, and flowering trees are the places to wait. Its acrobatic, upside-down feeding makes it worth watching for a few minutes at a time.