Orange-crowned Warbler

How to find it

Listen for the sharp, high call note, which this warbler gives often. Elsewhere in its range the tip is to look in low, dense vegetation, though that advice is not specific to Costa Rica. No named park, reserve or region in Costa Rica is tied to this species, so the realistic plan is to check every plain olive warbler carefully. Most will turn out to be a more regular migrant.

How to recognise it

This is a small, plain, active insect eater about 13 cm long. These details describe the species in general.

Look for:

A thin, pointed bill.

A faint yellow eyebrow stripe.

A broken eye ring.

No wing bars.

Dull yellow-olive underparts with blurry streaks.

Yellow undertail coverts, a useful mark on an otherwise drab bird.

The orange crown patch that gives the bird its name rarely shows. It is easiest to see when the crown feathers are raised, and when the bird is viewed from behind. Females and immatures are slightly duller. In the interior west of North America many birds have gray heads that contrast with a brighter olive back, while birds from the Pacific coast are brighter yellow.

What it sounds like

Recording: Jennifer Rycenga, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Across its wider range this warbler picks insects from leaves, blossoms and branch tips. It also eats some berries and fruit. These habits describe the species in general, not birds in Costa Rica, where it is only a vagrant.

When to see it

Costa Rican records are accidental autumn migrants. A Costa Rican birding writer says vagrants can turn up in any month, but November and December look best for lost birds.

Similar birds

It looks much like a fall Tennessee Warbler, and both lack wing bars. The Orange-crowned has faint streaking underneath and no strong face markings. In Costa Rica it sits next to Tennessee Warbler and Nashville Warbler in the warbler list. Both are more regular migrants, so a drab olive warbler here is far more likely to be one of them. Brighter Pacific coast birds are often taken for Yellow Warblers.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rica's official Spanish name is Reinita Olivácea, and a second Costa Rican name in use is Reinita olivada. Elsewhere in Latin America it goes by other names, including reinita coroninaranja, chipe celato and chipe oliváceo (Mexico), and bijirita de coronilla anaranjada (Cuba).

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list, in its June 2026 update, still gives it the status A-SC: an accidental visitor with no official voucher yet, and not a resident.