Parophasma galinieri
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The Abyssinian catbird (Sylvia galinieri), also known as the juniper babbler, is a small passerine in the family Sylviidae, endemic to the highland forests and scrub of Ethiopia. Despite its name, it is unrelated to other birds called "catbirds." It is mostly grey, with black lores, a whitish forehead, and a chestnut vent.
The Abyssinian catbird is a small-sized babbler. Its body is round with relatively short wings and legs. The bird's belly is white, but its upper parts are a lighter shade of grey that gradually fades to a darker shade moving to the backside of the bird. The head of the bird is a light shade of grey with dark highlights surrounding the eyes. The eyes themselves have a scarlet iris surrounding dark brown pupils. The beak is short pointed and black. Its wings are the darkest parts of its body having parallel bars of black along its length with the rest of the wing being grey. Its underside from its legs to its tail is a distinct orange that gives way to a tail that is about half the length of the bird itself. Abyssinian catbirds measure around 19 cm (7.5 in) in length.
The bird was formerly the sole member of the genus Parophasma, and its taxonomy... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bale Mountains National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report an Abyssinian Catbird sighting in Bale Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 61 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 39th most-seen of the 117 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report an Abyssinian Catbird in Bale Mountains National Park on a given day, against about 10% in May, the lowest month. That is one of Bale Mountains National Park's driest months, with about 40 mm of rain against 230 mm in April. March and September have too few records to rate.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Abyssinian Catbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Bale Mountains National Park, in our data
Bale Mountains National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Abyssinian Catbird sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Sylviidae
The closest relatives of the Abyssinian Catbird that you can see in Bale Mountains National Park (family Sylviidae, Sylviid Warblers and Allies) are Brown Warbler (about 20%) and Pseudoalcippe abyssinica (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Abyssinian Catbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Bale Mountains National Park (61 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.
