Polioptila plumbea
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The tropical gnatcatcher (Polioptila plumbea) is a small active insectivorous songbird, which is a resident species throughout a large part of northern South America. It was formerly considered as conspecific with the white-browed gnatcatcher and the Marañón gnatcatcher.
The tropical gnatcatcher 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 in the genus Todus, coined the binomial name Todus plumbeus and specified the type locality as Suriname in South America. The specific epithet plumbeus is Latin meaning "plumbeous" or "lead-coloured". Gmelin based his account on the "Plumbeous tody" that had been described in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had examined a specimen in the collection of the British Museum. The tropical gnatcatcher is now one of 17 gnatcatchers placed in the genus Polioptila that was introduced in 1855 by the English zoologist Philip Sclater.
The tropical gnatcatcher was formerly considered to conspecific with the white-browed gnatcatcher (Polioptila bilineata) and the Marañón... Wikipedia →
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Tropical Gnatcatcher sighting in Maracaibo on a given day, based on 113 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 23rd most-seen of the 89 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and October
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Tropical Gnatcatcher in Maracaibo on a given day, against about 10% in April, June, September and November–January, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Tropical Gnatcatcher sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 13
Of the 13 cities where we can rate Tropical Gnatcatcher sightings, Maracaibo ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Guayaquil (Ecuador, about 30%) and Valencia (Venezuela, about 20%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Tropical Gnatcatcher that you can see in Maracaibo (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Tropical Kingbird (about 90%), Tropical Mockingbird (about 90%) and Carib Grackle (about 80%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Tropical Gnatcatcher is recorded against all the birds logged in Maracaibo (113 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.
