Glaucidium brasilianum
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The ferruginous pygmy owl (Glaucidium brasilianum) is a species of small owl found in the southwestern United States, extending south through Mexico, Central America, and into South America, including countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina.
It is the most widely distributed species of pygmy owl in Central and South America and is believed to be one of the most common owls in these regions, where it lives in a variety of semi-open wooded habitats. The ferruginous pygmy owl was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. The species was originally assigned the binomial name Strix brasiliana, grouping it with other owls under the genus Strix. Although Gmelin did not directly cite it, his original description ultimately derived from the "Caburé", a small owl documented in 1648 by German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his work Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. The ferruginous pygmy owl is currently classified alongside 28 other small owls in the genus Glaucidium, introduced in 1826 by German zoologist Friedrich Boie. The genus name derives from the Ancient Greek... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 2 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 3 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 4 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 6 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 7 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 8 | Maceió | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parque Zoobotânico Getúlio Vargas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Amaru | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 3 | Complejo Turistico de Quistococha | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 4 | Aviario Nacional de Colombia | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Mangal das Garças | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Monkey Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 7 | Parque dos Falcões | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl sighting in Celestún Biosphere Reserve on a given day, based on 116 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 124th most-seen of the 297 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl in Celestún Biosphere Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in February, April, October and December, the lowest months. That is one of Celestún Biosphere Reserve's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain against 160 mm in June.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
32nd of 49
Of the 49 parks where we can rate Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl sightings, Celestún Biosphere Reserve ranks 32nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Cerro Azul Meámbar National Park (Honduras, about 40%), Celaque National Park (Honduras, about 30%) and Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl is recorded against all the birds logged in Celestún Biosphere Reserve (116 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.
