Tufted Flycatcher

How to find it

Scan forest edges, clearings and canopy openings rather than the dark interior, and look for an upright shape on an exposed perch. It often sits at middle to upper levels in plain view. It keeps returning to the same perch after each sally, so you can wait at one spot for it to come back. Listen at dawn for the fast song ending in a buzzy 'seer'. Check mixed flocks too, since it may join them. One birder met it on a trail above the end of the 4x4 road at Savegre Hotel in February 2023, and on a guided walk of the Savegre valley trails a group found many flycatchers, including Tufted, Black-capped and Yellowish.

How to recognise it

This is a tiny flycatcher, about 12 cm long across its whole range. Learn it in plain parallel marks:

Olive back, with a pointed crest.

Orange-ochre breast that fades to yellow on the belly.

Two buff wing bars on dark wings.

Cinnamon face, with a pale spot above the lores and a thin buffy eye-ring.

Olive crown tinged with brown.

Costa Rican and Panamanian birds look mostly cinnamon below. The subspecies of eastern Panama to Ecuador is the odd one out, with an olive breast and yellow belly.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

It perches bolt upright on an exposed branch and makes short sallying flights to snatch passing insects. Like a pewee, it hunts from an open perch, often returns to the same perch, and vibrates its tail on landing. It is usually seen in pairs, so when you find one, look for its mate nearby. At Curi-Cancha in Monteverde, a group watched a pair building a nest.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is most abundant between 1200 and 2150 m and rare below 450 m. Overall it ranges from 700 to 3500 m. It lives at forest edges, treefall gaps, clearings and canopy openings in montane forest, including pine and broadleaf forest, second growth and plantations.

In Costa Rica it has been photographed at Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Santa Elena Reserve, San Gerardo de Dota and Cerro de la Muerte. It is listed among the birds of Los Quetzales National Park and on the species list of Cloudbridge Nature Reserve.

When to see it

Breeding in Costa Rica takes place from April to June. A March 2024 tour watched Tufted Flycatchers building a nest at Curi-Cancha near Monteverde.

Similar birds

Pewees are the main puzzle. In the Savegre valley, birders compared it side by side with the Ochraceous Pewee, a rarer bird there, which gave a rare chance to study both. Silent pewees high in that valley were thought likely to be this species, because it tends to winter at higher elevations than the Eastern Wood-Pewee, so the two can be hard to separate. Tropical Pewee and Yellowish Flycatcher are other small flycatchers in the same highland habitat.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica and Panama the bird is called Mosquerito Moñudo. In Mexico it goes by names such as mosquero copetón, and in Honduras it is mosquero crestado.

Status and conservation

Listed as R (resident) on the AOCR list, it is considered common in Costa Rica, and the IUCN rates the species as Least Concern.

Photography tips

It perches in plain view, often at middle to upper levels, and keeps returning to the same perch after each sally. Settle at one spot with a clear view of an exposed branch and let it come back to you.