Yellow-winged Vireo

How to find it

Start with mixed-species flocks in highland forest, because that is where birders usually meet this vireo. Guides watch for these flocks on the trails above Savegre, where one trio was found on the Quebrada trail. Listen for singing birds in the oak canopy, as one sang from moss-covered branches along the Los Robles trail, high above Savegre. Near the communications towers on top of Cerro de la Muerte, one tour group had very good views. Small flocks in the Savegre Valley can also include Ruddy Treerunner, Yellowish and Golden-bellied Flycatchers and Sulphur-winged Parakeet, so check every bird that moves with them.

How to recognise it

This is a small bird, about 11 cm long. Look for these marks:

- Olive-green upperparts.

- A broad yellow eyebrow that joins a broken white eye ring.

- Two bold pale yellow wing bars.

- A white throat, with mostly plain yellowish underparts below it.

- Some olive on the flanks.

In Costa Rica no other vireo has yellow wing bars together with a yellow belly and breast.

Young birds are browner above and paler yellow below. Juveniles also have more buff-toned wing bars and a buff tinge on the breast, so they can look quite different from the bright adults. A duller vireo in a highland flock may simply be a young bird.

What it sounds like

Recording: er-birds, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Yellow-winged Vireo picks spiders and insects off leaves and also eats small fruits. It forages at all levels, inside the forest and along its edges, so it pays to look both low and high.

It often joins mixed-species feeding flocks, or travels with Flame-throated Warblers. It nests from March to June, as the dry season changes to the wet season. The nest is a leafy cup hung in a branch fork, 3 to 20 m up.

Where it lives

It lives in humid evergreen forest of the upper subtropical and temperate zones, using the canopy and edges of cool mountain forest. In Costa Rica it occurs from about 1,900 m up to treeline at about 3,000 m.

Across its whole range it is mostly found between 1,600 and 3,000 m, and it has rarely been found as low as 900 m in Panama. In Costa Rica it occurs in the Cordillera Central, the Dota mountains and the Cordillera de Talamanca. The species was first described from Dota, in San José province.

When to see it

It is said to move to lower elevations at times outside the breeding season. Spanish-language sources say it drops to about 1,500 m in the wet season, so it may be easier to find lower then.

Similar birds

No other Costa Rican vireo combines yellow wing bars with yellow underparts, which separates it from look-alikes. Juveniles are the ones to double-check, as their buffier wing bars and buff breast can make them look different from the bright adults.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Besides the official Spanish name Vireo Aliamarillo, Spanish sources also call it Vireo de Carmiol. The name honors Julian Carmiol, a German immigrant who collected birds in Costa Rica.

Status and conservation

It is a resident endemic on the AOCR list (R-END), rated Least Concern by the IUCN, considered common in Costa Rica and believed to have a stable population.

Photography tips

Mixed flocks that feed low are the best chance. A tour group on the Tapantí park road saw a few in a flock, and they showed the yellowish wing bars well. In the Savegre Valley, small flocks have fed very low and close in a garden.