Chlorornis riefferii
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The grass-green tanager (Chlorornis riefferii) is a small South America bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus Chlorornis. The grass-green tanager is 20 cm in length and weighs 53g. It lives in and around subtropical and temperate forests in the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru at elevations of 1500–3350 m.
It is seen in pairs or in groups of 3-6 individuals. It forages mostly on the upper half of short trees and eats fruits and insects. It is known to perch almost horizontally. Its nest is made of mosses and ferns, and its eggs are gray with light purple-grey dots.
The grass-green tanager was formally described in 1840 by the French ornithologist Auguste Boissonneau from a specimen collected near Bogotá in Colombia. He coined the binomial name Tanagra riefferii. The species is now the only member of the genus Chlorornis that was introduced in 1850 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek khlōros meaning "green" and ornis meaning "bird". The specific epithet was chosen to honour the collector Gabriel Rieffer. The grass-green tanager has a sister relationship to the genus Cnemathraupis... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Los Nevados National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Chingaza National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 4 | Farallones de Cali National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Grass-green Tanager sighting in Chingaza National Natural Park on a given day, based on 8 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 198th most-seen of the 258 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Grass-green Tanager in Chingaza National Natural Park on a given day, against under 5% in June to April, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Grass-green Tanager sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Grass-green Tanager sightings, Chingaza National Natural Park ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Podocarpus National Park (Ecuador, about 20%) and Los Nevados National Natural Park (Colombia, under 5%).
Same family: Thraupidae
The closest relatives of the Grass-green Tanager that you can see in Chingaza National Natural Park (family Thraupidae, Tanagers and Allies) are Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager (about 80%), Masked Flowerpiercer (about 60%) and Rufous-browed Conebill (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Grass-green Tanager is recorded against all the birds logged in Chingaza National Natural Park (8 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.
