White-winged Tanager

How to find it

Check canopy flocks of mixed species in humid montane forest. In middle-elevation cloud forest, mixed flocks are fairly common, so the job is to check each one for this canopy tanager. Watch for Common Chlorospingus and Sooty-capped Chlorospingus, which often signal a flock, and listen for flock regulars. Around the Savegre Valley you may walk minutes with no birds, then a flock passes and keeps you scanning the canopy and understory. Pairs tend to stay high, so scan carefully. Expect to need luck and patience in San Gerardo de Dota.

How to recognise it

The male is mostly red with a black mask, black wings and two white wing bars.

The female is dull olive-yellow, but she keeps the black wings and the white wing bars. Those bars are the clue to look for on either sex.

It is a small tanager, about 13 cm (5 in) long and 13 to 20 g, so in the canopy it is easy to lose among the leaves.

It is the only Piranga with clear, crisp white wing bars.

Its legs and bill are black, a useful check when the light allows.

Four subspecies exist overall, and they differ a lot in how much white the wings show.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

This tanager usually joins mixed-species flocks while searching for insects and fruit. It forages in the canopy, in pairs or small groups, and almost always with mixed flocks. It is more sociable than other Piranga species.

It feeds in humid forest, forest edge and second growth. The flock arrives, you scan it, and the flock moves on.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is recorded at middle elevations, roughly 1,100 to 1,850 m (about 3,600 to 6,100 ft). It lives in the highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama.

Recordings and photos come from the Tapantí area in Cartago (about 1,100 m), from the Las Cruces Biological Station and Wilson Botanical Garden near San Vito, and from San Gerardo de Dota. Elsewhere in its range it uses humid montane forest, forest edge and second growth.

Similar birds

The Flame-colored Tanager (Tangara Dorsirrayada) has a similar pattern and also lives in Costa Rica. The White-winged has black legs and bill, while the Flame-colored has paler legs and bill. A San Gerardo de Dota checklist marks the Flame-colored as common, so many red tanagers there will be that species.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican list gives the Spanish name Tangara Aliblanca, with the nickname Cardenalito, which means 'little cardinal'. Elsewhere in its range it is also recorded as Quitrique Guamero (a local name) and Piranga Aliblanca.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list classes it as a resident (R) in Costa Rica, and although it is not on any threatened species list, it is uncommon and very local.

Photography tips

Because pairs tend to stay high in the canopy, patience with each passing flock matters more than any single spot. Look for the red body and the pale bars on dark wings.