Dives atroviolaceus
Silhouette: Matt Wilkins · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The Cuban blackbird (Ptiloxena atroviolacea) is a species of bird in the family Icteridae, the oropendolas, New World orioles, and New World blackbirds. It is endemic to Cuba The Cuban blackbird has a complicated taxonomic history. It was formally described in 1839 with the binomial Quiscalus atroviolaceous. Later in the century most authors placed it in genus Dives. In 1892 Frank Chapman assigned it to the monotypic genus Ptdiloxena but most others retained it in Dives. Studies published in the early twenty-first century confirmed that it belongs in Ptdiloxena. The IOC adopted the change in 2014, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World in 2016, and the American Ornithological Society in 2017.
The Cuban blackbird is 25 to 28 cm (10 to 11 in) long and weighs 70 to 94 g (2.5 to 3.3 oz). The sexes have almost the same plumage. Adult males are entirely black with bluish and purple iridescence on their upperparts and a greenish sheen on the wings and uppertail coverts. Females are also black but have less iridescence than males. Both sexes have a dark brown iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet. Juveniles are a duller... Wikipedia →
Recording0:25
Cuba · 2021
© Wayne Fidler · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ciénaga de Zapata | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Cuban Blackbird sighting in Ciénaga de Zapata on a given day, based on 834 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 12th most-seen of the 177 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.
March and May
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Cuban Blackbird in Ciénaga de Zapata on a given day, against about 30% in April, the lowest month. September has too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cuban Blackbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Ciénaga de Zapata, in our data
Ciénaga de Zapata is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Cuban Blackbird sightings: about 50% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Icteridae
The closest relatives of the Cuban Blackbird that you can see in Ciénaga de Zapata (family Icteridae, New World Blackbirds and Orioles) are Greater Antillean Grackle (about 50%), Tawny-shouldered Blackbird (about 50%) and Hispaniolan Oriole (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cuban Blackbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Ciénaga de Zapata (834 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.
