Dickcissel

How to find it

Look in rice fields, and check the weedy edges. A group found five in the weedy edge of a rice field section near Ciudad Neily in southern Costa Rica, where the same fields also hosted Paint-billed Crake and Savanna Hawk. Another group saw flocks on farmland just south of Quepos, beyond oil palm plantations, with Indigo Buntings and Collared Seedeaters. Farmland and rice fields on the Pacific coast near Jaco are tour stops where it has been recorded. In Guanacaste, try the rice fields near Liberia on the road between Playa Panama and the Golfo de Papagayo turn-off. Early morning is when small groups were calling and moving from bush to bush.

How to recognise it

Adults are about 15 cm long. Look for these marks:

A thick, pale blue-gray, triangular bill.

A gray head with a yellow eyebrow.

A yellow and white throat.

Streaked brown back and wings.

The stout, cone-shaped bill is thicker than that of American sparrows or finches, which the bird resembles at first glance. That bill shows it belongs with the cardinals, the family Cardinalidae.

Both sexes share the gray head, yellow eyebrow and yellow and white throat. The female is paler, with a white line under the eye, a blue-gray bill and yellowish patches on the breast.

What it sounds like

Recording: Richard Littauer, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Dickcissel is a ground forager that takes seeds and insects in grass and low plants. It is social and flies in tight, ball-shaped flocks.

Many birds simply pass through on migration, calling unseen overhead. Others settle into farm fields for the season. Around Playa Panama in Guanacaste, small groups were calling and flitting from bush to bush early in the morning, while Orchard Orioles and Morelet's Seedeaters left their reed roosts nearby.

Where it lives

On its wintering grounds it lives in tropical lowlands. It is very common in farm fields, especially rice paddies, which gave it the name arrocero.

In Costa Rica it winters mainly on the Pacific slope and is only occasionally found on the Atlantic slope. Rice growing has expanded across Central America, and this may give enough food for a few flocks to stay the whole winter in the region. On Isla del Coco it is a casual visitor from North America.

When to see it

Migration through Costa Rica happens from early September to late October and from early April to mid-May. A Costa Rican birding blogger describes hearing the first Dickcissels of fall as early migrants passing overhead in September, and after a big night of migration in October, unseen buzzing birds passed over Gandoca on the southern Caribbean coast.

Similar birds

The female looks much like a female House Sparrow. She is paler, with a white line under the eye, a blue-gray bill and yellowish patches on the breast. The thick, cone-shaped bill also separates the Dickcissel from the American sparrows and finches it resembles at first glance.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican bird list gives Sabanero Arrocero as the Spanish name, with Arrocero and Pius listed beside it. Spanish references more widely also call it arrocero norteño, gorrión de pecho amarillo, sabanero americano and sabanero común, though these names are not specific to Costa Rica.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as M, a migrant, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern, with numbers described as stable.

Photography tips

Fall migrants often pass unseen overhead with a slight buzzy call, and most do not stay. Rice fields and weedy fields are where a Dickcissel is likely to land and be seen, so work their edges early in the morning.