Red-faced Spinetail

How to find it

Watch for it when a flock of small birds passes through, because it regularly joins mixed-species flocks. Guides find it in these feeding flocks along roads at middle elevations, for example at Río Macho, where pairs have been seen among several flocks. Expect to be patient: one tour saw just one bird there in a morning. Birders have also found it in roadside habitat on the pass between Poás and Barva. Late afternoon brought brief encounters on the Waterfall Trail at San Gerardo de Dota.

How to recognise it

Look for a small bird, about 15 cm long, with three clear marks:

A rufous head that stands out sharply against a gray body.

Rufous wings that contrast with the gray body.

A rufous tail that does the same.

The gray body is framed by warm color at both ends, and that contrast is the quickest way to pick it out of a busy flock. Because it is so active, you will usually catch it in motion, clinging to a branch or hanging upside down, rather than perched in the open. It is alone or in pairs.

What it sounds like

Recording: Niels Krabbe, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 5 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This is a very active bird. It climbs along branches catching insects and searching moss, lichens and curled dead leaves caught in epiphytes, and it often hangs upside down while it works. It regularly joins mixed-species flocks.

Across its range it forages mostly in the lower canopy but comes lower in more open habitats. It eats mainly arthropods, plus protein-rich food bodies from Cecropia trees.

The nest is a bulky ball of moss and fine dry vine pieces, up to 1 m long. It hangs from a branch end 5 to 12 m up, with the entrance near the bottom.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is a fairly common resident at middle elevations on both slopes, most frequent from about 2300 m on down. One source gives its Costa Rican band as about 700 to 2,000 m (2,300 to 6,600 ft).

Across its range it lives in montane subtropical forest, including forest interior, edges and second growth. A Costa Rican natural history account lists its conservation areas as Arenal, Cordillera Volcánica Central, Amistad Caribe, Amistad Pacífico, Huetar Norte, Guanacaste, Osa, Tortuguero and Pacífico Central.

When to see it

Breeding in Costa Rica is reported from March to June.

Similar birds

Costa Rica has three spinetails. Pale-breasted Spinetail is found only in the southern Pacific region, and near Turrialba the choice is between Slaty and Red-faced. Spinetails in the genus Synallaxis, such as Slaty, are generally found in low, thick, secondary scrub. The Red-faced is instead an arboreal spinetail of middle elevations.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Spanish name used in Costa Rica is Colaespina Carirroja, and a variant spelling, Cola espina cerirroja, is also listed. Other Spanish-speaking regions use names such as Curutié Carirrojo, Chamicero Rubicundo and Colaespina carirrojiza.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list (AOCR) marks it as a resident (R), and it is rated Least Concern, though one source describes the population as decreasing.

Photography tips

Once found, a guide-led group got scope views of one on a song perch, where it sang with its mouth wide open. Tracking it down took some time, so a scope and patience both help.