Basileuterus rufifrons
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The rufous-capped warbler (Basileuterus rufifrons) is a species of bird in the family Parulidae, the New World warblers. It is found in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. It also occurs as a casual visitor to the U. S. states of Arizona and Texas.
The rufous-capped warbler has a complicated taxonomic history. It was formally described in 1838 with the binomial Setophaga rufifrons. For a time in the nineteenth century it was placed in a new genus Idiotes. In 1902 Robert Ridgway assigned it to its present genus Basileuterus. By the end of the twentieth century it had been assigned eight subspecies, several of which had been treated by various authors as full species.
The further taxonomy of the rufous-capped warbler remains unsettled. In 2021 the American Ornithological Society, the IOC, and the Clements taxonomy split three of the subspecies as the chestnut-capped warbler (M. delatrii). They retained these five subspecies as the rufous-capped warbler:
The South American Classification Committee implemented the split... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 3 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 4 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 6 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 7 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 8 | Puebla | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 9 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 10 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-capped Warbler sighting in Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve on a given day, based on 84 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 91st most-seen of the 241 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October and December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-capped Warbler in Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in February, May, August–September and November, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rufous-capped Warbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
10th of 35
Of the 35 parks where we can rate Rufous-capped Warbler sightings, Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve ranks 10th at about 10%. The best odds are in Santa Rosa National Park (Costa Rica, about 50%), Rincón de la Vieja National Park (Costa Rica, about 50%) and Cumbres de Monterrey National Park (Mexico, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Parulidae
The closest relatives of the Rufous-capped Warbler that you can see in Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve (family Parulidae, New World Warblers) are Yellow Warbler (about 30%), Tennessee Warbler (about 20%) and Northern Waterthrush (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rufous-capped Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve (84 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.
