Yellow-backed Oriole

How to find it

Treat any sighting as a bonus rather than a goal, since no place can be counted on for this bird. The Costa Rican records are coastal and lowland, mostly in Puntarenas, so open farmland and rice fields near the south Pacific coast are where recent birds have turned up. Across its range, flowering trees and banana plants are good places to wait, because it visits both. Listen for clear whistled songs from high perches. Check every yellow oriole for a yellow back and solid black wings.

How to recognise it

Adults are bright yellow and black.

The face, throat, wings and tail are black, and a black patch runs from the chest over the throat up to the eye. The back and underparts are very bright yellow. Females look much like males, but their yellow is slightly greener.

The wings are solid black with no pale or yellow edges, unlike most other orioles. Very few orioles have a yellow back, so the plain two-colour pattern stands out when you see it well.

One source gives a length of about 24 cm. The bill is thick at the base and thin at the tip.

What it sounds like

Recording: Andrés Felipe SantoDomingo J., CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Across its range this oriole eats insects, fruit and nectar. It is often seen on banana stems and visits flowering trees. It usually travels in pairs, sometimes in groups of up to ten, and is very vocal.

Individual birds use a varied repertoire of sounds when foraging, defending territory or calling to others. The bird moves nimbly through branches while it forages, and it will chase other birds, including hawks, from its territory.

Where it lives

Across its range it uses open woodland, scrub, coffee plantations, clearings and farmland with forest patches. It is found from sea level up to about 2500 m, with some records higher, and up to nearly 2,700 m in Colombia.

In Costa Rica the sightings have come from the coast and lowlands: a rice field at Zancudo near Golfito, the mouth of the Parrita river near Quepos, Portalón de Quepos, Isla Chira in the Gulf of Nicoya, and Ciudad Neily in southern Puntarenas.

When to see it

The dated Costa Rican records fall in several months, from January to October, with no clear season.

Similar birds

Female and young Black-cowled Orioles, which are common in Costa Rica, can be mistaken for this oriole. The Yellow-backed is brighter yellow on the head and back, has less black on the face, and has a stouter, straighter bill. Solid black wings with no pale edges are another helpful mark.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The AOCR Spanish name is Bolsero Dorsidorado. The Costa Rican press has called it bolsero espalda dorada, and other Spanish names listed include bolsero dorso dorado, calandria dorso amarillo and turpial toche, or simply toche. Elsewhere it is turpial montañero in Colombia, toche in Venezuela, bolsero dorsiamarillo in Panama, chichiltote dorsiamarillo in Nicaragua and chorcha lomiamarilla in Honduras.

Colombian farmers say the mountain oriole seems to sing a different song in each village. They used to keep it caged for its song.

Status and conservation

The AOCR official list gives the Yellow-backed Oriole Accidental (A) status in Costa Rica, accepted with documented evidence, though a nest found in 2016 led the committee to change the earlier uncertain status to resident.

Photography tips

Birds often feed in flowering trees alongside other orioles, so a flowering tree or a stand of banana plants is a sensible place to wait. In Colombia a coffee farm gave views of a pair singing from a tall tree above live fences.