Flame-colored Tanager

How to find it

Head to mountain forest and scan the treetops for white wing bars and a streaked back, because it is often quiet and easy to overlook. Early morning and late afternoon are the best times, while midday in hot weather is slower. A Costa Rica birding site names the Talamanca Highlands as the most reliable area. Drives through highland farmland are worth slowing down for, since it also uses shady pastures, coffee farms, gardens and roadside cypress trees. Look for pairs, and check any mixed flock passing through highland forest.

How to recognise it

Males are orange to red with dusky stripes on the back, black wings and bold white wing bars. In Costa Rica they range from light orange to bright red-orange. Young males are patchy orange and yellow, which makes them look even more flame-like than adults. Females look like males but are yellow instead of orange: olive above with dusky streaks, yellow below, with a similar wing pattern.

The male has a blackish patch on the ear area, and both sexes show a brownish patch below the eye, which helps tell it from plain-faced orange or yellow tanagers. The bill has a black upper part and a gray lower part, and the legs are gray. Body length is about 18 cm.

What it sounds like

Recording: Dan MacNeal, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It forages mainly at middle to upper levels of the forest and is usually found in pairs. Sometimes it joins mixed flocks, so a flock passing through highland forest is worth checking. It gleans insects from leaves, picks them from leaf undersides while hovering, and chases flying insects. One female at San Gerardo de Dota caught a large beetle and crushed it in her bill before swallowing it. Activity is highest in early morning and late afternoon, and lower at midday in hot weather.

Where it lives

It usually stays in the canopy of humid mountain forest, and it also uses big trees in pastures, coffee farms and gardens, as well as roadside cypress trees. On the Pacific slope it reaches as low as about 900 m, and it is fairly common there from about 1,200 m up to near the tree line. On the Caribbean slope it is uncommon and lives at roughly 1,850 to 2,850 m. It is a resident of the Cordillera Volcánica Central, the Cordillera de Talamanca and the Dota region, and it may move downslope in winter.

When to see it

It does not migrate, so it can be seen all year. In Costa Rica it breeds between April and May.

Similar birds

No other tanager has both a streaked back and wing bars together, which is the key mark. The female Western Tanager has no bold white wing bars, a less streaked back, no dark ear patch and a paler bill. The male White-winged Tanager has a black mask around the eye and a plain bright red back, and it lacks the white marks on the tertials and tail.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican sources list the Spanish names as tangara dorsirrayada or dorsirrayado, with Cardenal as an added local name. Another Spanish name for the species in the region is quitrique de espalda rayada.

Status and conservation

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

Photography tips

Plan for early morning and late afternoon, when activity is highest. Look for the white wing bars in the treetops, and check shady pastures, gardens and roadside cypress trees on highland drives, where it can come into easier view. Males and females have both been photographed in Costa Rican gardens and hotel grounds in the highlands.