Chestnut-headed Oropendola

How to find it

Scan for a tall, isolated tree with a cluster of long hanging nests, since the colonies are easy to spot. Clearings and forest edges are the places to check, because that is where it nests. Birds go in and out all day, so a few minutes of watching is rewarding. Short elevational and seasonal movements are known, likely following fruiting trees, so a quiet spot may be busy on another visit. A banana feeder in a village near Turrialba has also drawn one, during a very rainy week.

How to recognise it

This is a large, dark bird with a conspicuous yellow tail, pale eyes and a long pale bill. The bill has a swollen cap on the forehead.

Up close, the eye is pale blue. The ivory-coloured bill seems to reach the top of the head, which makes it look very large.

Adults have a chestnut head, neck and rump, with a black back and wings. The male is 35 cm long, with a black belly. The female is smaller at 28 cm, with a dark chestnut belly and duller plumage.

Against the Montezuma, this species is smaller and mainly black with a chestnut head, and it lacks coloured facial patches.

What it sounds like

Recording: Dylan Camacho Guzman, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It moves in noisy, loose flocks that fly at treetop level, and females usually outnumber males in the colonies. Colonies sit in one or a few isolated trees and are noisy, which can make the bird seem more common than it really is.

Range-wide, it hunts small lizards, tree frogs and large invertebrates in the canopy, and it also eats fruit and nectar.

Where it lives

It prefers wooded areas and nests at forest edges, in clearings and in isolated trees. In Costa Rica it is a resident on the Caribbean side, from the lowlands up to about 1200 m, and most numerous in the foothills. During the breeding season it locally climbs as high as 1700 m.

In the south Pacific it is local around Coto Brus and the Golfo Dulce region, and it is occasional in the lower General Valley.

When to see it

Range-wide, the species breeds between January and June, and colonies are most active and noisy then. In March 2023 at Manzanillo, Talamanca, adults were busy at nests and chicks were nearly grown.

Similar birds

Costa Rica has three oropendolas. The Montezuma is the one most often seen, and the Crested is found only in the far south. The Montezuma is mainly chestnut with a blackish head, the reverse of this species. At Manzanillo, Montezuma Oropendolas bred nearby but in a separate colony.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans know it as Oropéndola, Oropel or Guacalillo. Around San Antonio, near Turrialba, locals call oropendolas oropeles, although oropel is really the name of a snake.

Status and conservation

The AOCR lists it as a resident (R), and the IUCN rates the species Least Concern.

Photography tips

Colonies are easy to find, but photos are hard. Adults slip into the nest too fast, so shoot when they leave. They keep feeding chicks even with photographers directly below.