Helmitheros vermivorum
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The worm-eating warbler (Helmitheros vermivorum) is a small New World warbler that breeds in the Eastern United States and migrates to southern Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America for the winter. It is the only species in the genus Helmitheros.
The worm-eating warbler was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the wagtails in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla vermivora. Gmelin based his account on the "worm-eater" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his Gleanings of Natural History. Edwards had received a specimen from the American naturalist William Bartram that had been collected in Pennsylvania. The worm-eating warbler is now placed in the genus Helmitheros that was introduced in 1819 by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek helmins meaning "worm", and -thēras meaning "hunter". The specific epithet vermivorum is from Latin vermis meaning "worm" and -vorus meaning "-eating". The species is monotypic:... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 3 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 8 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Carolina Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Worm-eating Warbler sighting in Houston on a given day, based on 215 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 179th most-seen of the 302 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.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Worm-eating Warbler in Houston on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Worm-eating 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 16 cities where we can rate Worm-eating Warbler sightings, Houston ranks 5th at under 5%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Miami (United States, under 5%), Havana (Cuba, under 5%) and Orlando (United States, under 5%).
Same family: Parulidae
The closest relatives of the Worm-eating Warbler that you can see in Houston (family Parulidae, New World Warblers) are Yellow-rumped Warbler (about 40%), Orange-crowned Warbler (about 20%) and Pine Warbler (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Worm-eating Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Houston (215 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.
