Gray-headed Tanager

How to find it

Watch for army ant swarms in lowland forest, because that is where the tanagers gather. Guides found the birds around ant swarms at Carara. Look low, in thick vegetation near the ground, rather than up in the canopy. Do not wait for song, since the bird is mostly quiet. Carara lies in the central Pacific region, a transition zone between northwest dry forest and southwest rainforest, and its trails are well kept and mostly flat, which suits unhurried searching.

How to recognise it

This is a medium tanager, about 17 to 18 cm long. Look for these marks:

Gray head and neck, with a slightly crested head. A Bolivian description calls the hind crown fluffy, and another writer calls the crest bushy.

Olive back, wings and tail.

Bright yellow underparts, including the chest.

Black bill, which looks stout, and yellow legs.

The all-gray head against the yellow chest is the combination to check. The immature has a yellow-olive head instead of a gray one, so a young bird will not show the neat gray hood of an adult.

What it sounds like

Recording: Miguel A. Paixão, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Birds at army ant swarms in forest were always active, twitching their tails and wings. The tanager follows the ants to catch the insects fleeing from them, and its diet includes fruit and insects as well. Across its range it usually travels alone or in pairs in the understory and lower mid-levels, and it often joins mixed-species flocks. It stays in dense undergrowth and the lower middle levels of forest, where it is easily overlooked.

Where it lives

Its natural habitats are moist lowland forest, swamps and heavily degraded former forest. In Costa Rica it ranges up to about 1,200 m elevation. The spodocephalus subspecies occurs on both slopes of Nicaragua south into Costa Rica, reaching Guanacaste in the west and Alajuela in the east. The stictothorax subspecies lives on the Pacific slope from Puntarenas south into Panama. It is also listed on the bird list of Cloudbridge Nature Reserve, and a photo was taken at Las Caletas in April 2008.

When to see it

One writer met these tanagers following army ants on two mornings in June at Finca Cántaros.

Similar birds

The adult resembles a female White-shouldered Tanager, though the Gray-headed forages closer to the ground and often near water; that comparison comes from Peru. In southern Mexico one shared a perch with a female Red-throated Ant-Tanager, which has a large black bill and an eye ring. The Gray-headed has an all-gray head, yellow chest and bushy crest.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rica uses the same name as the AOCR list, Tangara Cabecigrís. Other countries use other names, such as güicha hormiguera in Colombia and bachaquero in Venezuela.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident species, uncommon in the northwest and fairly common further south, and BirdLife International rates it Least Concern.

Photography tips

Birds at army ant swarms were always active, twitching tails and wings, and one writer found them hard to photograph, especially in forest shade. Scan slowly near the ants and be ready for quick, low movements.