Panyptila cayennensis
Silhouette: Aviceda (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The lesser swallow-tailed swift or Cayenne swift (Panyptila cayennensis) is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae. It is found from southern Mexico through Central America; in every mainland South America country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay; and on Trinidad.
The lesser swallow-tailed swift 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 all the swallows and swifts in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo cayennensis. Gmelin based his description on the "Martinet à collier blanc" that had been described in 1779 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. A hand-colored illustration of the bird was also published. The lesser swallow-tailed swift is now placed with the great swallow-tailed swift in the genus Panyptila that was introduced in 1847 by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek panu meaning "very" or "exceedingly" with ptilon meaning "wing". The specific... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 2 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift sighting in Panama City on a given day, based on 74 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 182nd most-seen of the 363 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 Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift in Panama City on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 2 cities where we can rate Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift sightings, Panama City has the highest daily chance: under 5%. Next come San José (Costa Rica, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift is recorded against all the birds logged in Panama City (74 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.
