Cape May Warbler

How to find it

Start with flowering bottlebrush trees, where a Costa Rica birder says sightings are almost always made. Expect disappointment sometimes: that writer checked bottlebrush trees nearby and found only Tennessee Warblers. Look at eye level in coffee plantations, gardens and ornamental plantings, not only in the canopy. Hummingbird feeders with sugar water may also draw it in winter, as may fresh fruit, jelly and mealworms at garden feeding stations. Listen for the thin 'tsi' notes and check every warbler for streaking across the breast.

How to recognise it

Most Cape May Warblers seen in Costa Rica are not full-plumage males, and the streaked breast still helps you identify them.

Breeding males show:

- a chestnut cheek patch

- bold white wing bars

- yellow underparts with dark streaks

Females are duller, with grayish cheeks and thinner wing bars.

The bill is fine and pointed, with a slight downward curve. The back is greenish brown, the rump is yellow and the tail is short. A thin, slightly downcurved bill, a bold face pattern and a big white wing patch separate it from Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers.

What it sounds like

Recording: Will Kuhn, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Much of its time is spent high in the canopy, which makes good views hard to get. In winter and on migration, though, Cape May Warblers forage at all levels and are often seen at eye level in coffee plantations and ornamental plantings. That is unlike their high-canopy habits when breeding.

In winter it drinks berry juice and nectar. Unusually for a warbler, it has a tube-shaped tongue that helps it do this.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica a garden on the slopes of Turrialba Volcano has hosted this warbler, and an adult female was photographed in Heredia. Across southern Mexico and Central America, including Costa Rica, the species is described as less common or sporadic on the Caribbean slope.

On its winter grounds it turns up in coffee plantations and ornamental plantings, and it breeds far to the north in boreal and conifer forests.

When to see it

One Turrialba garden logged a run of sightings starting in November 2008, and its first definite male, a non-breeding bird, was found on 14 February 2015. A female was photographed in Heredia on 14 December 2018.

Similar birds

Plain females and young birds look like Myrtle (Yellow-rumped), Palm, Pine and Blackpoll Warblers. Cape May usually shows stronger streaks spread over more of the breast. The song closely resembles that of the Bay-breasted Warbler.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rica and Panama use the name reinita tigrina. Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua say reinita atigrada, Mexico uses chipe atigrado or chipe tigre, and Puerto Rico says reinita tigre.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a migrant (M), it is a rarity in Costa Rica, and the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern.

Photography tips

This is a hard bird to photograph. One Turrialba bird stayed in the same güitite shrub while the observer fetched his camera, yet his photos were still blurry. Have your camera ready before you approach flowering trees, and look at eye level where it forages low.