Contopus virens
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The eastern wood pewee (Contopus virens) is a small tyrant flycatcher from North, Central and South America. This bird and the western wood pewee (C. sordidulus) were formerly considered a single species. The two species are virtually identical in appearance, and can be distinguished most easily by their calls.
In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the eastern wood pewee in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in the Carolinas. He used the French name Le gobe-mouche cendré de la Coroline and the Latin Muscicapa Carolinensis cinerea. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the eastern wood pewee. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Muscicapa virens and cited Brisson's work. The specific name virens is Latin for "green". This species is now placed in the genus Contopus that was introduced... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bogota | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 2 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 8 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 10 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Eastern Wood-Pewee sighting in San José on a given day, based on 1,595 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 55th most-seen of the 379 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September and October
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report an Eastern Wood-Pewee in San José on a given day, against under 5% in May–August and December–March, the lowest months. Those are among San José's wettest months, with about 280 mm of rain a month against 20 mm in February.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Eastern Wood-Pewee sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
11th of 31
Of the 31 cities where we can rate Eastern Wood-Pewee sightings, San José ranks 11th at about 10%. The best odds are in Bogota (Colombia, about 30%), Washington (United States, about 20%) and Baltimore (United States, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Eastern Wood-Pewee is recorded against all the birds logged in San José (1,595 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.
