Yellow-shouldered Grassquit

Yellow-shouldered Grassquit

Loxipasser anoxanthus

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR Endemic
Daily sighting probability ~40% · Likely
at Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park

In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%

375 Verified sightings at Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park From 2019 to 2026
375 In 1 park
May Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Yellow-shouldered Grassquit

The yellow-shouldered grassquit (Loxipasser anoxanthus) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is endemic to Jamaica. The yellow-shouldered grassquit was formally described in 1847 by the English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse as the "Yellow-back finch" in his book The Birds of Jamaica. Gosse coined the binomial name Spermophila anoxantha. The naturalist Henry Bryant erected Loxipasser for it in 1866. The genus name combines the word Loxia introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for the crossbills with Passer introduced by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 for the sparrows. The specific epithet anoxanthus is formed from the Ancient Greek anō meaning "above" or "upperparts" with xanthos meaning "yellow". Although the yellow-shouldered grassquit was traditionally placed with the buntings and New World sparrows in the family Emberizidae, molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that this species is a member of the subfamily Coerebinae within the tanager family Thraupidae.

The yellow-shouldered grassquit is the only member of its genus and has no subspecies. The yellow-shouldered grassquit is 10 to 11.5 cm... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Song0:19

Jamaica · 2010

© Richard C. Hoyer · XC48144 · CC BY-NC-ND 2.5

Song0:05

Jamaica · 2022

© Bobby Wilcox · XC713807 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song1:01

Jamaica · 2018

© Nick Komar · XC426057 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park 🇯🇲 Jamaica
~40%

More parks will be added in future updates.

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Yellow-shouldered Grassquit in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park?

Likely

About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-shouldered Grassquit sighting in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 375 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 37th 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.

When is the best time to see a Yellow-shouldered Grassquit in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park?

May

In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-shouldered Grassquit in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park on a given day, against about 20% in September and December, the lowest months. June has too few records to rate.

What time of day is best to see a Yellow-shouldered Grassquit?

Between 7 and 10 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-shouldered 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.

Where else can you see a Yellow-shouldered Grassquit?

Only Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, in our data

Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Yellow-shouldered Grassquit sightings: about 40% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.

Which relatives of the Yellow-shouldered Grassquit live in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park?

Same family: Thraupidae

The closest relatives of the Yellow-shouldered 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.

Where does the Yellow-shouldered Grassquit sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Yellow-shouldered Grassquit is recorded against all the birds logged in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (375 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.

← Back to Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park