Cyclarhis gujanensis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The rufous-browed peppershrike (Cyclarhis gujanensis) is a passerine bird in the vireo family. It is widespread and often common in woodland, forest edge, and cultivation with some tall trees from Mexico and Trinidad south to Argentina and Uruguay.
The rufous-browed peppershrike was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Tanagra and coined the binomial name Tanagra gujanensis. The specific epithet is derived from the type locality, the Guianas. Gmelin based his account on "Le verderoux" from French Guiana that had been described in 1778 by the French polymath Comte de Buffon in his multivolume Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The rufous-browed peppershrike is now placed with the black-billed peppershrike in the genus Cyclarhis that was introduced in 1824 by William Swainson.
Twenty two subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-browed Peppershrike sighting in Celestún Biosphere Reserve on a given day, based on 210 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 90th most-seen of the 297 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and February
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-browed Peppershrike in Celestún Biosphere Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in October, the lowest month. Those are among Celestún Biosphere Reserve's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain a month against 160 mm in June.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rufous-browed Peppershrike sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
24th of 52
Of the 52 parks where we can rate Rufous-browed Peppershrike sightings, Celestún Biosphere Reserve ranks 24th at about 10%. The best odds are in El Impenetrable National Park (Argentina, about 60%), Itatiaia National Park (Brazil, about 50%) and Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park (Mexico, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Vireonidae
The closest relatives of the Rufous-browed Peppershrike that you can see in Celestún Biosphere Reserve (family Vireonidae, Vireos, Shrike-Babblers, and Erpornis) are Mangrove Vireo (about 60%), White-eyed Vireo (about 10%) and Red-eyed Vireo (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rufous-browed Peppershrike is recorded against all the birds logged in Celestún Biosphere Reserve (210 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.
