Spot-breasted Oriole

How to find it

Think dry, warm Guanacaste, and look in shade trees, farm edges and gallery forest rather than deep woodland. Flowering trees are a good bet, since it visits them for nectar. One visiting birder saw it at red-flowering trees near a resort. Watching a known blooming tree can pay off, because that bird came back to the same trees on three visits. The same birder found it harder to see than the Streak-backed Oriole, so allow time. Palo Verde National Park and the Palo Verde Biological Station are named as places where visitors can see it.

How to recognise it

Adults are bright orange with a black mask, throat, bib and back. They have black spots on the sides of the breast, a black tail, and a large white patch on the closed black wing.

The breast spotting is the key mark, and no other oriole has it. The white patch comes from broad white edges on the inner flight feathers, so it sits on the flight feathers and not on the coverts. Seen from behind, the back is solid black.

Males and females look much alike, though females are duller. Young birds are duller and yellower, with an olive-brown back and no black on the face, throat or breast. Look for the plain olive back and faint pale wing edges, since they could be mistaken for other young orioles.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

It looks for insects in foliage and often pulls open rolled leaves. It also visits the flowers of trees such as Erythrina and Gliricidia for nectar. Across its range it forages in pairs or family groups and eats many foods, including fruit and nectar, while breeding adults need arthropods to feed their chicks. Outside the nesting season in Costa Rica it often forms small flocks.

The nest is a hanging pear-shaped woven bag up to 45 cm long, slung from a branch fork 6 to 18 m up. It breeds from May to July in Costa Rica.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it uses open wooded areas, shade trees around farms and villages, edges of gallery forest and dry scrub. It goes up to about 500 m, near the Cordillera de Guanacaste. Farther north in Central America it reaches 1,600 m.

The Costa Rican subspecies, espinachi, lives in Guanacaste and northern Puntarenas provinces, and it continues north into Nicaragua. A photo record comes from Las Juntas de Abangares in Guanacaste, and Mata Redonda National Wildlife Refuge is also named for the species.

Similar birds

In Guanacaste the Streak-backed Oriole is the common lookalike. Seen from behind, streaks on the back identify the Streak-backed, while the Spot-breasted has a solid black back. The breast spots and the white on the flight feathers are the other keys. The Altamira Oriole is not on the Costa Rica list but could be overlooked as this species. It has a small gray patch at the base of a stout bill and no breast spots.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican lists give the nicknames Balsero and Chiltote alongside the official name Bolsero Pechimanchado. The Streak-backed Oriole has its own set of nicknames, so the two are not the same bird. Elsewhere in its range other names are used, such as Chiltota in El Salvador and Chichiltote Maculado in Nicaragua, so Chiltote is a regional nickname and not a Costa Rica only word.

Status and conservation

The AOCR lists it as a resident (R), described as uncommon in Costa Rica, and the IUCN rates it Least Concern though its population is thought to be declining.

Photography tips

Watch a known flowering tree, since one bird returned to the same red blooms on three visits. Expect partly hidden views in leafy trees, because a photographer noted this oriole's habit of hiding.