Yellow-winged Flatbill

How to find it

Listen first and look second. The bird sings from a well-hidden perch high in the forest, mostly in the morning and late afternoon. Once you hear it, scan the canopy, because it is hard to see. Check mixed flocks as they pass, and look a little lower at forest edges. Learn the 1-4 song before you go, since flatbills are very hard to tell apart except by voice. On a trip we build, Caribbean slope forest is the place to try, including the Caribbean lowlands at La Selva.

How to recognise it

This is a small bird, 13 to 13.5 cm long, with a largish head and greenish plumage. Look for these marks:

- Grey crown and face, with a white eye-ring.

- Grey breast fading to yellow toward the rear.

- Yellow belly and undertail.

- Broad yellow wing edges, but no wing bars.

- A white patch that often shows at the base of the folded flight feathers.

These descriptions come from the species across its range. A good photo to confirm the identification shows yellow-edged wing feathers, no wing bars, and a wide bill with a pale lower half.

What it sounds like

Recording: Zac Peterson, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Flatbills of this genus forage well above the forest floor and often join mixed flocks, so a passing wave of birds in the canopy is worth scanning. This species works the mid-story up to the canopy and seems to drop lower at forest edges.

It usually sings from a well-hidden perch high in the forest. Its bag-shaped nests, a habit of the genus, are often built near wasp nests. Little is known about its basic natural history.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica this flatbill lives mainly on the Caribbean slope, from the north of the country southward. It reaches about 600 m elevation in northern Costa Rica and about 1,000 m in southern Costa Rica and Panama.

Across its range it lives in humid forest west of the Andes in Ecuador and Colombia, and in Panama and Costa Rica.

When to see it

It usually sings mostly in the morning and late afternoon, so those are the hours to be in the forest.

Similar birds

Costa Rica has three flatbills that can be confused: Eye-ringed, Yellow-olive and Yellow-winged. One tour group recorded all three together at a single stop. The Yellow-olive Flatbill is the more widespread here, common and also found on the Pacific slope to about 1,400 m. It has no white patch at the base of the flight feathers, and its yellow wing edges are usually narrower, though they still hint at a wing bar.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it Piquiplano Aliamarillo. Other countries use different Spanish names: Picoplano Aliamarillo del Pacífico in Colombia, and Picoancho Alimarginado in Ecuador.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list gives it the status R, resident, and it is described as fairly common in Costa Rica and rated Least Concern by the IUCN.

Photography tips

Aim for a frame that confirms the identification: yellow-edged wing feathers, no wing bars, and a wide bill with a pale lower half. Since the bird sings from a hidden high perch, find it by ear first, then scan the canopy.