Melanospiza bicolor
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The black-faced grassquit (Melanospiza bicolor) is a small bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in the West Indies except Cuba Colombia, Venezuela and islands off its coast, and on islands in the western Caribbean Sea.
The first formal description of the black-faced grassquit was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae. He introduced the binomial name Fringilla bicolor. Linnaeus based his description on the "Bahama Sparrow" that was described and illustrated by Mark Catesby in his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands which was published between 1729 and 1732. By 1970 it had been reassigned to the genus Tiaris. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that this genus was polyphyletic and that the black-faced grassquit was closely related to the Saint Lucia black finch in the (then) monospecific genus Melanospiza. In the resulting reorganization of the genera, between 2016 and 2020 taxonomic systems moved the black-faced grassquit to Melanospiza.
The black-faced grassquit has these eight subspecies: The black-faced... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park | 🇯🇲 Jamaica | |
| 2 | Main Ridge Forest Reserve | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 3 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Henri Pittier National Park | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 5 | Los Haitises National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 2 | Edward Youde Aviary | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR China | |
| 3 | Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory | 🇺🇸 United States |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Grassquit sighting in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 429 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 33rd most-seen of the 91 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.
January
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Black-faced Grassquit in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park on a given day, against about 30% in February, the lowest month. June has too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-faced Grassquit sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Black-faced Grassquit sightings, Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park has the highest daily chance: about 40%. Next come Main Ridge Forest Reserve (Trinidad and Tobago, about 30%) and Everglades National Park (United States, under 5%).
Same family: Thraupidae
The closest relatives of the Black-faced Grassquit that you can see in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (family Thraupidae, Tanagers and Allies) are Bananaquit (about 90%), Orangequit (about 90%) and Greater Antillean Bullfinch (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-faced Grassquit is recorded against all the birds logged in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (429 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.
