Sayornis saya
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
Say's phoebe (Sayornis saya) is a passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family, Tyrannidae. A common bird across western North America, it prefers dry, desolate areas. It was named for Thomas Say, an American naturalist.
Say's phoebe was formally described in 1825 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte from a specimen collected near Pueblo, Colorado. He coined the binomial name Muscicapa saya where the specific epithet was chosen to honour the American naturalist Thomas Say. The species is now placed in the genus Sayornis that was introduced by Bonaparte in 1854.
Two subspecies are recognised: It is gray-brown above with a black tail and buffy cinnamon below, becoming more orange around the vent. The tail is long and the primaries end just past the rump on resting birds. The wings seem pale in flight and resemble a female mountain bluebird. The juvenile is similar to adult, but has buffy orange to whitish wingbars and a yellow gape... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mesa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Las Vegas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Phoenix | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | León | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 6 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 9 | Tijuana | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 10 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Say's Phoebe sighting in Big Bend National Park on a given day, based on 2,551 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 17th most-seen of the 270 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and October–December
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Say's Phoebe in Big Bend National Park on a given day, against about 30% in June, the lowest month.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Say's Phoebe sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 23
Of the 23 parks where we can rate Say's Phoebe sightings, Big Bend National Park ranks 3rd at about 40%. The best odds are in Death Valley National Park (United States, about 60%) and Badlands National Park (United States, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Sayornis
The closest relatives of the Say's Phoebe that you can see in Big Bend National Park (genus Sayornis, Phoebes) are Black Phoebe (about 30%) and Eastern Phoebe (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Say's Phoebe is recorded against all the birds logged in Big Bend National Park (2,551 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.
