Slate-colored Seedeater

How to find it

It is not reliable anywhere, but it is often found near seeding bamboo, so look for it where bamboo is seeding. Even that is a gamble: on one Tapantí National Park visit, seeding bamboo held no Slate-colored Seedeater, and on another walk, bamboo that was not seeding drew no response to its song. In the La Gamba area of the southern Pacific, a birder reported it as easy to find in rice fields, and one field close to harvest held at least 40 birds. Recent sightings have also come from the boat on the Tarcoles River, mentioned alongside Ruddy-breasted Seedeaters. Montserrat de Coronado is off the main birding tour routes, so a local guide or independent exploring suits it.

How to recognise it

Adult males are mostly slaty gray with white underparts, a white wing patch and a deep yellow bill. Some have a pale patch on the sides of the neck.

Females are plain olive-brown with a dark bill, so they ask for more care. Start with the male, whose yellow bill and white wing patch stand out against the gray body.

In Costa Rica the male is very similar to the Grey Seedeater, but the Slate-colored shows a white eye-ring. Look at the face first and the eye-ring will often settle the question.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

This is a wanderer, and it is generally rare. It appears to follow seeding bamboo events, where it can become temporarily common, so numbers can jump from nothing to a crowd in one place.

Away from Costa Rica it is described as a bamboo specialist that moves in flocks of several dozen when not nesting. It searches for flowering bamboo, mainly Guadua, and nests in those areas when the bamboo sets seed.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is generally a lowland species, and it occurs on both the Caribbean and Pacific slopes. Across its range it is mainly a forest bird, sometimes found around rice fields.

The southern Pacific form, schistacea, ranges from southwestern Costa Rica to Panama and northern Colombia. Singing males have been recorded at Rincón de Osa on the Osa Peninsula and at Pueblo Nuevo in Puntarenas. It has also been photographed at Jacó and at Palmar Sur, and seen around Montserrat de Coronado, a highland site in the upper northeastern Central Valley.

When to see it

A female was photographed at Palmar Sur in southern Costa Rica in February 2010, a dated record from the southern Pacific lowlands.

Similar birds

The Grey Seedeater is very similar, but the Slate-colored shows a white eye-ring. The Grey male is also paler, while the Slate-colored is slightly darker and shows a white wing bar. Away from Costa Rica the male is compared with the Plumbeous Seedeater, and a thick orange bill helps separate them.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans use the name Espiguero Pizarroso, and the AOCR list gives Setillero as an alternate name. Setillero is also a general term for seedeaters in Costa Rica. Other Spanish names used elsewhere include Semillero Pizarroso and Espiguero Apizarrado.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), and it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, though it is generally uncommon to rare with highly scattered populations.

Photography tips

In Ecuador, singing males were photographed in the canopy of a large Guadua bamboo stand. Look up into bamboo tops, not only low down.