Orchard Oriole

How to find it

Start with flowering trees, since the birds are attracted to the blossoms of Erythrina, Gliricidia, Eugenia and Combretum. Check riverside trees, plantations and wooded pastures rather than deep forest. Watch for flocks, and listen for the soft jeet or chuk and the quick chatter. Scan any oriole for the smaller size and dark chestnut belly. Baltimore Oriole is the other common winter oriole at most sites away from the highlands, so compare the two.

How to recognise it

Adult males are black with chestnut on the belly, shoulder and rump. The chestnut is deep and dark, where a Baltimore Oriole is bright orange.

Females and young birds are olive-green above and yellowish below. A female is greenish yellow, with no orange tones like a female Baltimore.

All Orchard Orioles have a pointed bill and white wing bars. The bill is straight and sharply pointed, and the body looks slim.

For size, think 15 to 18 cm, the smallest oriole species: smaller than a Baltimore Oriole and larger than a Yellow Warbler.

What it sounds like

Recording: w_mark_c, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

In Costa Rica the Orchard Oriole is drawn to the flowers of legume trees such as Erythrina and Gliricidia, where it feeds on nectar.

In winter it often travels in flocks through riverside trees, plantations and wooded pastures. It feeds in flocks, probing flowers and taking insects from leaves.

It migrates at night and usually flies low, at or below treetop level. In Costa Rica, Skutch found Orchard Orioles sleeping at night in a shared roost with seven other species, Baltimore Oriole among them.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica and Panama, most winter birds are on the Pacific slope and western highlands, up to about 1,650 m. A few pass through Pacific offshore islands.

It has also been photographed in the La Fortuna de San Carlos area of Alajuela, and it is reported as a common winter bird around Caño Negro in the far north. It is recorded too on the Caribbean slope around Turrialba.

On its wintering grounds in general it uses shrubby second growth, open woodland, river forest, forest edge, clearings with scattered trees and farmland. It is rarely in heavy forest.

When to see it

It passes through Costa Rica from late July or early August to October, and again in March and April. It has also been photographed near La Fortuna in December and January.

Similar birds

Baltimore Oriole is the main confusion species. The Orchard is smaller, males have dark chestnut underparts where the Baltimore is bright orange, and females lack any orange tone. Orchard Orioles are also sometimes mistaken for New World warblers, but the straight, sharply pointed bill and larger size than a Yellow Warbler set them apart.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Besides the official name Bolsero Castaño, Costa Rican bird lists give the alternate names Cacique Ahumado and Cacique Café.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list classes it as a migrant (M), and BirdLife International and the IUCN list it as Least Concern.

Photography tips

Flowering trees are the place to wait. Elsewhere birders attract it with sliced oranges, fruit jelly or hummingbird feeders, though it does not usually visit ordinary seed feeders.