Rhionaeschna multicolor
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The blue-eyed darner (Rhionaeschna multicolor, syn. Aeshna multicolor) is a common dragonfly of the family Aeshnidae; native to the western United States, it is commonly sighted in the sagebrush steppe of the Snake River Plain, occurring east to the Midwest from central Canada and the Dakotas south to west Texas and Oklahoma. In Central America it occurs south to Panama. This is usually the second earliest darner to emerge in the spring, with the California darner emerging first. It hunts small flying insects while on the wing. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Death Valley National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Puebla | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 3 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 8 | Salt Lake City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 10 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-Eyed Darner sighting in Seattle on a given day, based on 130 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 42nd most-seen of the 428 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-Eyed Darner in Seattle on a given day, against under 5% in November to May, the lowest months. That is one of Seattle's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain against 190 mm in November.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue-Eyed Darner sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 16 cities where we can rate Blue-Eyed Darner sightings, Seattle ranks 6th at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Toluca (México, about 10%), Puebla (México, about 10%) and Portland (United States, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue-Eyed Darner is recorded against all the insects logged in Seattle (130 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.
