Mohoua ochrocephala
Silhouette: Amy Whitehead · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The yellowhead or mohua (Mohoua ochrocephala) is a small insectivorous passerine bird endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. Once a common forest bird, its numbers declined drastically after the introduction of rats and stoats, and its IUCN conservation status is now near threatened.
The yellowhead was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the flycatchers in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa ochrocephala. The specific epithet is derived from the Ancient Greek ōkhros meaning "pale yellow" and -kephalos meaning "-headed". Gmelin based his account on the "yellow-headed fly-catcher" that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a watercolour painting of the bird by Georg Forster who had accompanied James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The inscription on the painting includes the year 1774 and the location "Queen Charlotte's Sound". Queen Charlotte Sound is on the north coast of the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 2 | Arthur's Pass National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 3 | Fiordland National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Mōhua (Yellowhead) sighting in Arthur's Pass National Park on a given day, based on 103 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 32nd most-seen of the 48 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–May and December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Mōhua (Yellowhead) in Arthur's Pass National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July and October, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mōhua (Yellowhead) sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 3
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Mōhua (Yellowhead) sightings, Arthur's Pass National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Rakiura National Park (New Zealand, about 50%).
Same family: Acanthizidae
The closest relatives of the Mōhua (Yellowhead) that you can see in Arthur's Pass National Park (family Acanthizidae, Thornbills and Allies) are Grey Warbler (about 90%) and Pipipi (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Mōhua (Yellowhead) is recorded against all the birds logged in Arthur's Pass National Park (103 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.
