Cardellina pusilla
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Wilson's warbler (Cardellina pusilla) is a small New World warbler. It is greenish above and yellow below, with rounded wings and a long, slim tail. The male has a black crown patch; depending on the subspecies, that mark is reduced or absent in the female. It breeds across Canada and south through the western United States, and winters from Mexico south through much of Central America. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.
Wilson's warbler was formally described in 1811 by the ornithologist Alexander Wilson under the binomial name Muscicapa pusilla. The type locality is southern New Jersey. The species was moved to the genus Wilsonia by the naturalist and ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1838. Zoologist Thomas Nuttall moved it to Sylvania in 1840, and by 1845, many authors included it in Myiodioctes. In 1899, the American Ornithological Union returned the species to Wilsonia. The species is currently assigned to the genus Cardellina. The genus name Cardellina is a diminutive of the Italian dialect Cardella, a name for the European goldfinch, and the specific epithet pusilla means "very small".
There are three recognized subspecies: Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Puebla | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 3 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 4 | Guadalajara | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 5 | León | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 6 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 7 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 8 | Torreón | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 9 | Tijuana | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 10 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zoológico de Culiacán | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Wilson's Warbler sighting in San Diego on a given day, based on 1,942 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 127th most-seen of the 386 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Wilson's Warbler in San Diego on a given day, against under 5% in June–August and October–March, the lowest months. Those are among San Diego's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain a month against 55 mm in February.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Wilson's 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.
27th of 45
Of the 45 cities where we can rate Wilson's Warbler sightings, San Diego ranks 27th at under 5%. The best odds are in Toluca (México, about 50%), Puebla (México, about 50%) and Mexico City (México, about 40%).
Same family: Parulidae
The closest relatives of the Wilson's Warbler that you can see in San Diego (family Parulidae, New World Warblers) are Yellow-rumped Warbler (about 50%), Orange-crowned Warbler (about 40%) and Common Yellowthroat (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Wilson's Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in San Diego (1,942 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.
