Phytotoma rara
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The rufous-tailed plantcutter (Phytotoma rara), sometimes called the Chilean plantcutter, is a passerine bird of southern South America, now placed in the cotinga family. It is a medium-sized bird about 19 centimetres (7.5 in) long with a long black tail with a red base. Males have greyish-brown upper parts, a chestnut crown and breast, and dark facial markings. Females are similar but lack the chestnut crown and have streaked, buff underparts. There is a wing bar which is white in the male and buff in the female. This is a fairly common species with a wide range, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".
It is a stocky bird, 18-20 centimetres in length, with short wings and a red eye. The longish tail is black with a reddish base. The upperparts of the male are grey-brown with dark streaks while the crown and underparts are chestnut-coloured. There is a white bar on the wing and a pattern of dark and pale areas on the face. Females have buff underparts with brown streaks and have buff rather than white in the wings. They do not have the males' chestnut crown but may show a cinnamon wash to... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Torres del Paine National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile | |
| 2 | Nahuel Huapi National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santiago | 🇨🇱 Chile |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-tailed Plantcutter sighting in Santiago on a given day, based on 4,645 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 13th most-seen of the 110 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August to January
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-tailed Plantcutter in Santiago on a given day, against about 30% in April, the lowest month.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rufous-tailed Plantcutter sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Santiago, in our data
Santiago is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Rufous-tailed Plantcutter sightings: about 50% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Rufous-tailed Plantcutter that you can see in Santiago (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Austral Thrush (over 90%), Rufous-collared Sparrow (about 90%) and Southern House Wren (about 90%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rufous-tailed Plantcutter is recorded against all the birds logged in Santiago (4,645 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.
