Rusty-margined Flycatcher

How to find it

Start early: La Gamba Road is open grassland at sea level and heats up during the day. This flycatcher is among the species there that are not found around San Vito. The La Gamba and Esquinas area is about 35 minutes by car from Ciudad Neily, with a border checkpoint on the way, and one birder found the bird at the first stop. Check roadside second growth near Coto 47 and the Las Pangas wetlands, and the road from La Gamba to Golfito, where one group saw it on an early morning walk. Look for pairs in small trees and on wires in open pasture. Listen for an unfamiliar call from what seems to be a Social Flycatcher.

How to recognise it

Across its range the bird is about 16.5 to 18 cm long. Its main marks are:

Head: dark sooty, with a white eyebrow stripe and a yellow crown patch that is mostly hidden.

Throat: white.

Bill and legs: a short, stubby black bill and black legs.

Back and wings: brown, with cinnamon edges on the wing feathers.

Underparts: bright yellow.

Those cinnamon-rufous wing edges give the bird its name and set it apart from its relatives. Costa Rican birds show a blacker face with black cheeks, a darker brown back and visible brown wing margins. Young birds lack the rusty margins but already show the yellow crown patch. The edges can be hard to see: on one trip they only showed in the scope when a bird held a wing open.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

It often perches in the open and sallies out to catch prey in the air or on the ground, often over water. It usually feeds in pairs, so when you find one, look for its partner. Birds sit in the middle or upper levels of trees and take prey in short horizontal flights. Compared with the Social Flycatcher it is quieter and more shy. In Costa Rica, one bird perched on a power line and others sat in small roadside trees in open pasture. At Coto 47 one answered calls and came in toward a group.

Where it lives

Across its range it lives at forest edge and in woody second growth. It is fairly common to common, especially near water, mostly below 1000 m elevation. In Costa Rica it is known only from the extreme far south, around La Gamba, Golfito, Coto 47 and Ciudad Neily. There it turns up in open or semi-open country: roadside second growth, pasture with small trees, and the edge of a marshy pasture near the Panama border, where two were seen on a Deep South tour.

When to see it

Costa Rican records come from several months, including March and April, and no seasonal pattern is stated.

Similar birds

The Social Flycatcher is the close look-alike, and the Vermilion-crowned Flycatcher also has strong black and white head markings. The Rusty-margined is told apart by the cinnamon-rufous wing edges, a blacker face in Costa Rica and a quieter manner. Along the Esquinas entrance road one bird perched with a couple of Social Flycatchers, giving a handy side-by-side comparison. Young birds are hardest, since they lack the rusty margins.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rica's official Spanish name is Mosquero Alicastaño, and the AOCR list adds Pecho Amarillo in brackets. Other regions use names such as bienteveo alicastaño, atrapamoscas de pecho amarillo and suelda crestinegra.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it R, with only a few records in the far south, including nesting, and range-wide the IUCN rates it Least Concern.

Photography tips

Look for birds on power lines and in small roadside trees in open pasture. Use good light: in one trip report, poor light hid the brown wing margins in a photo. Good light shows them and helps you separate the bird from a Social Flycatcher.