Spindalis zena
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
[[|thumb]] [[|thumb]] The western spindalis (Spindalis zena) is a songbird species. It was formerly considered conspecific with the other three species of Spindalis, with the common name stripe-headed tanager. The western spindalis was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the finches in the genus Fringilla and coined the binomial name Fringilla zena. Linnaeus based his account on "The Bahama Finch" that had been described and illustrated in 1730 by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Linnaeus specified the type locality as southern America but this was restricted in 1936 by the Austrian ornithologist Carl Eduard Hellmayr to New Providence in the Bahamas. The western spindalis is now one of the four species placed in the genus Spindalis that was introduced in 1837 by William Jardine and Prideaux John Selby. The specific epithet zena is from Ancient Greek ζηνα/zēna or ζηνη/zēnē, a type of finch, probably the European goldfinch.
Five subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 2 | Ciénaga de Zapata | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zoológico de Trinidad | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Western Spindalis sighting in Ciénaga de Zapata on a given day, based on 93 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 111th 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 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Western Spindalis in Ciénaga de Zapata on a given day, against under 5% in July–August and October–December, the lowest months. That is one of Ciénaga de Zapata's wettest months, with about 130 mm of rain against 15 mm in February. September has too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Western Spindalis sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Western Spindalis sightings, Ciénaga de Zapata ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park (Mexico, about 40%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Western Spindalis that you can see in Ciénaga de Zapata (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are American Redstart (about 60%), Palm Warbler (about 60%) and Greater Antillean Grackle (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Western Spindalis is recorded against all the birds logged in Ciénaga de Zapata (93 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.
