Gray-crowned Yellowthroat

How to find it

Check scrubby field edges almost anywhere in the lowlands, since a Costa Rica birding news page calls it pretty common in brushy fields. Scan weedy edges and listen for the song. Males sing from exposed spots in weedy fields, so look up at open perches as well as low in the grass. Watch low plants and the ground, where it picks at insects. Pastures with tall grass, bracken patches and sugarcane all deserve a slow look.

How to recognise it

Adult male:

- slate gray crown

- small black mask

- olive upperparts

- bright yellow underparts

- white flecks on the eyelids, a detail worth looking for when the bird sits still

Female:

- grayish brown crown

- brownish olive upperparts

- less yellow below, with a belly that is mostly buffy white

Young birds look like the female, with more buff on the breast and flanks. The whole bird is about 13.5 cm long. Against other yellowthroats (Geothlypis), look for the smaller black mask, a thicker bill and a longer, stepped tail.

Behaviour and diet

You will see it in pairs or alone, and it is insectivorous. Across its range it feeds low, mostly picking insects off low plants and sometimes working on the ground.

The nest is a cup of dry grass leaves set low, 15 to 50 cm up, in a big grass tuft. It holds 2 spotted white eggs. Bronzed Cowbirds sometimes lay eggs in its nests in Costa Rica, and a Costa Rican paper reports it as a new host of this parasitic bird.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it lives in pastures and savannas with tall grass and scrub, low second growth, bracken fern patches and sugarcane fields. It is a common resident of the lowlands on both the Caribbean and Pacific slopes, and it climbs to 1500 m or more in the Central Valley.

Across its whole range it is mostly a lowland bird of open, bushy habitats such as moist grassy fields and hedgerows, and locally it reaches almost 2000 m.

When to see it

Breeding in Costa Rica runs from May to July. Tour groups have recorded it in January to February and in March, and nothing suggests it is seasonal.

Similar birds

It behaves a bit like the Common Yellowthroat but is less tied to marshes, and it often lives in rank weedy or brushy fields. It is slightly larger and shows black mostly on the lores and the area at the bill base, far less than the mask of a Common Yellowthroat. Among yellowthroats, the thicker bill and long, stepped tail help too.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Beyond the official Costa Rican name Antifacito Coronigrís, Spanish names for the species include mascarita coronigrís and chipe de pico grueso. The name antifacito coronigrís is also used in Panama.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican bird list marks it R, a resident, and globally it is rated Least Concern.

Photography tips

Males sing from exposed spots, so a singing bird is often in plain view on top of a bush or in a weedy field. Listen first, then scan open perches.