Chestnut-capped Warbler

The chestnut-capped warbler is about 13 cm (5.1 in) long and weighs 7 to 16 g (0.25 to 0.56 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies B. d. delattrii have a chestnut crown and ear coverts with a long white supercilium between them, black lores, and a white spot under the eye. Their nape is olive-gray and their upperparts olive. Their wings and tail are dusky gray with olive edges on the feathers. Their chin is white and their underparts mostly golden yellow with an olive-buff wash on their flanks, vent, and undertail coverts. Subspecies B. d. mesochrysus has a paler crown than the nominate, a small white spot below the lores, and a grayish neck and upper mantle. B. d. actuosus is similar to mesochrysus but has darker upperparts and duller underparts. All subspecies have a dark iris, a blackish bill, and pinkish legs and feet.

The chestnut-capped warbler has a disjunct distribution that the map does not fully show. The nominate subspecies is found from southern Guatemala south through El Salvador, most of Honduras, and western Nicaragua into western Costa Rica as far as Cartago and central San José provinces. Past a gap, subspecies B. d. mesochrysus is found from southern San José and central Puntarenas provinces in southern Costa Rica to Panamá Province in central Panama. It also is found separately in the Serranía del Perijá on the Venezuela/Colombia border and in Colombia from the Caribbean south along the Central Andes to Huila Department. B. d. actuosus is found only on Coiba Island off the Pacific coast of western Panama. The chestnut-capped warbler inhabits dry to moist deciduous woodlands, young secondary forest, the edges of denser forest, and shade coffee plantations. In elevation it ranges between 450 and 2,150 m (1,500 and 7,100 ft) in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, from sea level to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in northern Costa Rica, and between 600 and 1,600 m (2,000 and 5,200 ft) in southern Costa Rica. In Venezuela it is found at about 1,000 m (3,300 ft) and in Colombia from sea level to 2,200 m (7,200 ft).

The chestnut-capped warbler feeds primarily on insects and other invertebrates but includes small numbers of berries in its diet. It is a deliberate forager, taking most food by gleaning from vegetation in the habitat's lower to mid-level..