Aramus guarauna
Silhouette: lwolfartist (photograph), T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The limpkin (Aramus guarauna) is a large wading bird related to rails and cranes, and the only extant species in the family Aramidae. It is found mostly in wetlands in warm parts of the Americas, from Florida to northern Argentina, but individuals have been reported as far north as Wisconsin, and Southern Ontario. It feeds on molluscs, with the diet dominated by apple snails of the genus Pomacea. Its name derives from its seeming limp when it walks. It has also been called "carrao", "courlan", and "crying bird".
The limpkin is placed in the family Aramidae, which is in turn placed within the crane and rail order Gruiformes. The limpkin had been suggested to be close to the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae, based upon shared bird lice. The Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy of birds, based upon DNA–DNA hybridization, suggested that the limpkin's closest relatives were the Heliornithidae finfoots, and Sibley and Monroe even placed the species in that family in 1990. More recent studies have found little support for this relationship. More recent DNA studies have confirmed a close relationship with particularly the cranes, with the limpkin remaining as... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 2 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Buenos Aires | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 7 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Salvador | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Campinas | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amazon Rescue Center | 🇵🇪 Peru |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Limpkin sighting in Ciénaga de Zapata on a given day, based on 114 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 105th most-seen of the 177 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June–August and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Limpkin in Ciénaga de Zapata on a given day, against under 5% in February, April–May and December, the lowest months. Those are among Ciénaga de Zapata's wettest months, with about 110 mm of rain a month against 15 mm in February. 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 Limpkin sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 39
Of the 39 parks where we can rate Limpkin sightings, Ciénaga de Zapata ranks 13th at about 10%. The best odds are in Palo Verde National Park (Costa Rica, about 50%), Los Haitises National Park (Dominican Republic, about 50%) and Lago de Yojoa (Honduras, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Gruiformes
The closest relatives of the Limpkin that you can see in Ciénaga de Zapata (order Gruiformes, Cranes, Rails, and Allies) are Common Moorhen (about 40%), Clapper Rail (about 30%) and Sora (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Limpkin is recorded against all the birds logged in Ciénaga de Zapata (114 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.
