Thalurania furcata
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The fork-tailed woodnymph (Thalurania furcata) is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay. The fork-tailed woodnymph was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other hummingbirds in the genus Trochilus and coined the binomial name Trochilus furcatus. The fork-tailed woodnymph is now placed with three other woodnymphs in the genus Thalurania that was introduced in 1848 by the English ornithologist John Gould. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek thalos meaning "child" with ouranos meaning "heaven". The specific epithet furcata is from Medieval Latin furcatus meaning "forked".
Thirteen subspecies of fork-tailed woodnymph are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname | |
| 2 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 5 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 6 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 8 | Serra da Canastra National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 10 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 11 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 12 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 13 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 14 | Chapada Diamantina National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 15 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Brasilia | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Fork-tailed Woodnymph sighting in Belo Horizonte on a given day, based on 99 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 74th most-seen of the 220 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.
April and May
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Fork-tailed Woodnymph in Belo Horizonte on a given day, against under 5% in February–March and September–December, the lowest months. Those are among Belo Horizonte's driest months, with about 40 mm of rain a month against 270 mm in December.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Fork-tailed Woodnymph sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 4 cities where we can rate Fork-tailed Woodnymph sightings, Belo Horizonte ranks 2nd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Campo Grande (Brazil, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fork-tailed Woodnymph is recorded against all the birds logged in Belo Horizonte (99 verified sightings), 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.
