Sporophila morelleti
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
Morelet's seedeater (Sporophila morelleti) is a passerine bird in the typical seedeater genus Sporophila. This species was formerly considered conspecific with the cinnamon-rumped seedeater (Sporophila torqueola), with the combined species known as white-collared seedeater. However, with the discovery that cinnamon-rumped and Morelet's are deeply divergent from one another genetically, don't intergrade, and aren't even each other's closest relatives within the genus, they are now treated as separate species.
It ranges from a small area along the Rio Grande near San Ignacio, Texas in the United States south through eastern Mexico and Central America to Panama. It mainly inhabits tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands but can also be found in pastures, arable land, and heavily degraded former forests.
The Morelet's seedeater eats mainly seeds and insects, and occasionally berries. It often forages on herbaceous plants, and less often on the ground. In captivity, it drinks and bathes often, but in the wild no drinking was observed, even though more than 300 hours of field notes were taken. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 2 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 3 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 4 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 5 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 6 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Morelet's Seedeater sighting in Arenal Volcano National Park on a given day, based on 1,397 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 147th most-seen of the 503 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May to August
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Morelet's Seedeater in Arenal Volcano National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October to December, the lowest months.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Morelet's Seedeater sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
21st of 39
Of the 39 parks where we can rate Morelet's Seedeater sightings, Arenal Volcano National Park ranks 21st at about 10%. The best odds are in Cerro Azul Meámbar National Park (Honduras, about 50%), Lago de Yojoa (Honduras, about 40%) and Cusuco National Park (Honduras, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Sporophila
The closest relatives of the Morelet's Seedeater that you can see in Arenal Volcano National Park (genus Sporophila, Typical Seedeaters and Seed-Finches) are Variable Seedeater (about 50%) and Thick-billed Seed-Finch (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Morelet's Seedeater is recorded against all the birds logged in Arenal Volcano National Park (1,397 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
