We tested whether the probability of detecting avian haemosporidia (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) using molecular techniques differs among blood, liver, heart, and pectoral muscle tissues. We used a paired design, sampling the 4 tissue types in 55 individuals of a wild South American suboscine antbird, the white-shouldered fire-eye (Pyriglena leucoptera). We also identified parasites to cytochrome b lineage. Detection probability was significantly lower in blood compared to the other 3 tissue types combined. Eight of 22 infections were not detected in blood samples; 4–7 infections were not detected in the other individual tissues. The same parasite lineage was recovered from different tissues.