Ortalis motmot
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The little chachalaca (Ortalis motmot) is a bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela and possibly Colombia. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the little chachalaca in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in French Guiana. He used the French name Le faisan de la Guiane and the Latin Phasianus guianensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the little chachalaca. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Phasianus motmot and cited Brisson's work. The specific name had been used by the Dutch zoologist Albertus Seba in 1734 when he had misapplied the Aztec name motmot to a chachalaca. The species is now placed in the genus Ortalis that was introduced by the German naturalist Blasius... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manaus | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mangal das Garças | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Variable Chachalaca sighting in Brownsberg Nature Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 205th most-seen of the 221 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Variable Chachalaca in Brownsberg Nature Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–April and August–January, the lowest months. May to July have too few records to rate.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Variable Chachalaca sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is seen both by day and at night.
Only Brownsberg Nature Park, in our data
Brownsberg Nature Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Variable Chachalaca sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Cracidae
The closest relatives of the Variable Chachalaca that you can see in Brownsberg Nature Park (family Cracidae, Guans, Chachalacas, and Curassows) are Marail Guan (about 20%) and Black Curassow (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Variable Chachalaca is recorded against all the birds logged in Brownsberg Nature Park (6 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.
