Orange-chinned Parakeet

How to find it

Listen first, because the birds call almost constantly in flight. In Guanacaste their calls are nearly always heard overhead between 5:30 and 7:00 AM as flocks fly out to feed. In late afternoon they gather noisily at a communal roost tree. A visitor to a Costa Rican resort found about ten perched in the open in a dead tree by the pool, most common in mornings and evenings and usually gone by midday. Look for a big fruiting fig, since they use one near the road around the old Casona site at Santa Rosa. Open country with scattered large fruiting trees suits them well.

How to recognise it

This is a small, mostly green parrot with brown shoulders and blue in the wings. It is only about 18 cm long, with a short pointed tail, and it is among the smallest parrots in Costa Rica.

The orange chin patch that gives it its name is tiny, sits under the lower bill and is often hard to see, so do not count on it. Among Costa Rican green parrots it is best told by plain green color and brownish shoulders, with no obvious red or other bright marks.

In flight it swoops, alternating wing beats with short dropping glides. Flocks often veer sideways and rarely fly in straight lines.

Across its whole range the underwing coverts are bright yellow, the bare eye ring is whitish and the bill is pale horn.

What it sounds like

Recording: Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Day flocks are usually 2 to 16 birds, and they are quick to call in other flocks when one finds a fruiting fig. At figs they may really be cracking the tiny seeds inside.

Midday they sometimes rest and play in the patch of woods at the Santa Rosa park office, and in late afternoon they gather noisily at a communal roost tree.

They nest in holes in arboreal termite nests, old woodpecker holes, palm cavities and rock crevices. Nesting starts in the dry season and can run into the early wet season.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it prefers open or partly wooded country and is most numerous in partly cleared areas. It lives in savannas, young and old second growth, the canopy and edges of dry and wet forest, gallery forest, cacao plantations, and suburban and urban areas.

It has been recorded up to about 1,200 m. It is mainly a Pacific slope bird, it reaches the Caribbean lowlands and it is found east toward Panama. A Costa Rican news item places it in the Zona Norte and across most of the country.

When to see it

Nesting begins in the dry season and may continue into the early wet season, and a Costa Rican natural history source places breeding between January and May. Pairs are most busy at their termite nests then.

Similar birds

It is green like the conures of Guanacaste dry forest, but it has a shorter tail and lacks their yellow eye ring and orange forehead. It often joins the larger, longer-tailed Orange-fronted Parakeet at fruiting and flowering trees, and its bounding flight and small size help separate the two. Only the Perico Listado and Periquito Alirrojo are smaller, at 15 cm.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican names include catano, zapoyolito, perico and periquito barbinaranja. The National Archive photo record adds chimbolito, and lists catano as the name used in Tilarán.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), and IUCN lists it as Least Concern, though wild birds are taken for the pet trade.

Photography tips

Fruiting or flowering canopy trees and open sunlit areas are good places to watch them. One Costa Rican visitor saw a flock chattering in the top of a tall Cecropia tree. Birds at rest in the canopy are well camouflaged by their green plumage, so they are harder to spot at midday than when flying and calling. Early morning flight is the easier moment.