Vermivora cyanoptera
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The blue-winged warbler (Vermivora cyanoptera) is a fairly common migratory New World warbler, 11.5 cm (4.5 in) long and weighing 8.5 g (0.30 oz). It breeds in eastern North America in southern Ontario and the eastern United States and winters in southern Central America. Its breeding range is extending northwards, where it is replacing the very closely related golden-winged warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera).
In 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus described a new species in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Certhia pinus. Linnaeus based his entry on the "pine-creeper" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalists Mark Catesby in 1731 and George Edwards in 1760. Edwards had doubts as to whether his specimen was the same species as illustrated by Catesby and included as a footnote "On a stricter examination I think it a species different from Catesby's". Edwards' etching actually depicted a blue-winged warbler so that Linnaeus's name applied to both the pine warbler and the blue-winged warbler. In 1810 the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson redescribed the blue-winged warbler under the binomial name Sylvia solitaria... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 5 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-winged Warbler sighting in Chicago on a given day, based on 901 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 160th most-seen of the 314 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 Blue-winged Warbler in Chicago on a given day, against under 5% in June to April, the lowest months. That is one of Chicago's wettest months, with about 120 mm of rain against 50 mm in January.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue-winged Warbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 18 cities where we can rate Blue-winged Warbler sightings, Chicago ranks 6th at under 5%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Los Angeles (United States, under 5%), Houston (United States, under 5%) and New York City (United States, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue-winged Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Chicago (901 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.
