Golden-winged Warbler

How to find it

Scan mixed flocks in forest and second growth, in the lowlands, at middle elevations and in old second growth with many hanging dead leaves. Check the flock edges and treetops. Learn the flock leaders first: in cloud forest, watch Common Chlorospingus, Lineated Foliage-gleaner and Spotted Woodcreeper. Keep your eyes on the flock rather than your field guide, because the birds move on fast. One Costa Rica guide says it is much easier to see here than elsewhere in its range, and that in winter seeing one or more in a day of birding is typical.

How to recognise it

Adults are small and gray above and white below. Look for these marks:

A bright yellow crown.

A large yellow wing patch.

A very fine, sharp bill.

A length of about 11.5 cm and a weight of about 8.5 g.

Males show a black mask and throat edged in white. Females show gray in place of black, and look like a paler version of the male. Their yellow crown is partly hidden by olive feather tips, so it can be less striking than on a male.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

In Costa Rica it usually joins mixed-species flocks and rarely strays from them. It forages by checking clusters of dead leaves, so watch for a small warbler working through hanging leaves rather than flitting along open branches. Its diet is mainly insects, spiders and caterpillars.

On the wintering grounds it stays mostly in the canopy along forest edges. It is rarely seen with other Golden-winged Warblers, usually just one per flock.

Where it lives

On the Osa Peninsula, Golden-winged Warblers winter in open forest and second growth. Wintering birds in Costa Rica chose premontane evergreen forest over tropical dry forest.

A tracking study points to wetter mid-elevation forests as especially important, particularly forests next to protected areas. A Costa Rican source describes it as widely spread through the Caribbean lowlands and some higher elevations. Records from Tapantí National Park, San Gerardo de Dota and the Monteverde cloud forest show it also turns up higher up. Most records from winter surveys by ProAves came from secondary forest.

When to see it

A Costa Rican source calls it a fairly common fall migrant, passing through from early September to late October. On the Osa Peninsula the species winters from roughly October through April.

Similar birds

Hybrids with Blue-winged Warbler are the main confusion risk. Brewster's hybrid lacks the black cheek and throat patch, and Lawrence's hybrid looks like a Blue-winged with a Golden-winged face pattern. Blue-winged Warblers sometimes sing the Golden-winged song, and the reverse also happens, so confirm the bird by sight, not by song alone.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The official Costa Rican Spanish name is Reinita Alidorada. Elsewhere in Latin America it is also called chipe alidorado or chipe alas amarillas in Mexico, and cigüita ala de oro in the Dominican Republic.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a migrant (M), and a Costa Rican source calls it an uncommon winter resident and a fairly common fall migrant.

Photography tips

Check the edges of the flock and the treetops, where it tends to stay on its wintering grounds. Expect usually just one per flock, and be ready, because flocks move on quickly. One bird took a bath at hummingbird pools, a spot worth watching.