Basileuterus rufifrons
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
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 |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-capped Warbler sighting in Chagres National Park on a given day, based on 718 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 22nd most-seen of the 372 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September and November
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-capped Warbler in Chagres National Park on a given day, against about 30% in May and July, the lowest months. Those are among Chagres National Park's wettest months, with about 280 mm of rain a month against 30 mm in February.
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.
Among the best
Of the 35 parks where we can rate Rufous-capped Warbler sightings, Chagres National Park ranks 4th at about 50%, level with the leaders once rounded. 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 Chagres National Park (family Parulidae, New World Warblers) are Bay-breasted Warbler (about 40%), Black-and-white Warbler (about 40%) and Tennessee Warbler (about 30%), 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 Chagres National Park (718 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.
