Oncostoma olivaceum
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The southern bentbill (Oncostoma olivaceum) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Colombia and Panama. The southern bentbill was originally described in 1862 as Todirostrum olivaceum. It was later moved to genus Oncostoma that Philip Sclater had created that same year.
The southern bentbill is monotypic. It shares genus Oncostoma with the northern bentbill (O. cinereigulare); in the early twentieth century at least one author considered them to be conspecific. The two form a superspecies.
The southern bentbill is about 9 cm (3.5 in) long and weighs about 6 to 7 g (0.21 to 0.25 oz). It has a distinctive fairly thick downcurved bill. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly olive head with a whitish area above the lores. Their back, rump, and uppertail coverts are olive. Their wings are dusky with lemon yellow edges on the flight feathers and greenish yellow tips on the coverts; the latter show as two indistinct wing bars. Their tail is dusky olive. Their throat and breast are yellowish white with olive streaks, their belly yellow, and their flanks olive-yellow with some olive... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soberanía National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 2 | San Lorenzo Protected Forest | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | Parque Natural Metropolitano | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 4 | Tayrona National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 6 | Chagres National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Bentbill sighting in Chagres National Park on a given day, based on 40 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 213th most-seen of the 372 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Bentbill in Chagres National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February and April–December, the lowest months. Those are among Chagres National Park's driest months, with about 45 mm of rain a month against 300 mm in July.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Southern Bentbill sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Southern Bentbill sightings, Chagres National Park ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in Soberanía National Park (Panama, about 30%), San Lorenzo Protected Forest (Panama, about 30%) and Parque Natural Metropolitano (Panama, about 10%).
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Southern Bentbill that you can see in Chagres National Park (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Guatemalan Paltry Tyrannulet (about 50%), Tropical Kingbird (about 40%) and Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Southern Bentbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Chagres National Park (40 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.
