Sayornis saya
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Say's phoebe (Sayornis saya) is a passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family, Tyrannidae. A common bird across western North America, it prefers dry, desolate areas. It was named for Thomas Say, an American naturalist.
Say's phoebe was formally described in 1825 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte from a specimen collected near Pueblo, Colorado. He coined the binomial name Muscicapa saya where the specific epithet was chosen to honour the American naturalist Thomas Say. The species is now placed in the genus Sayornis that was introduced by Bonaparte in 1854.
Two subspecies are recognised: It is gray-brown above with a black tail and buffy cinnamon below, becoming more orange around the vent. The tail is long and the primaries end just past the rump on resting birds. The wings seem pale in flight and resemble a female mountain bluebird. The juvenile is similar to adult, but has buffy orange to whitish wingbars and a yellow gape... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mesa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Las Vegas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Phoenix | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | León | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 6 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 9 | Tijuana | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 10 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Say's Phoebe sighting in Los Angeles on a given day, based on 18,457 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 50th most-seen of the 426 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October to January
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Say's Phoebe in Los Angeles on a given day, against under 5% in July and August, the lowest months. Those are among Los Angeles's wettest months, with about 45 mm of rain a month against almost none in June.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Say's Phoebe sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 26
Of the 26 cities where we can rate Say's Phoebe sightings, Los Angeles ranks 7th at about 20%. The best odds are in Mesa (United States, about 30%), Las Vegas (United States, about 30%) and Phoenix (United States, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Say's Phoebe is recorded against all the birds logged in Los Angeles (18,457 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.
