Leptodon cayanensis
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The gray-headed kite (Leptodon cayanensis) is a raptor found in open woodland and swamp forests. It shares the genus Leptodon with the extremely rare white-collared kite. It breeds from eastern Mexico and Trinidad south to Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and northern Argentina.
The gray-headed kite is 46–53 cm in length and weighs 410–605 grams (.9–1.3 lb) The adult has a grey head, black upperparts, white underparts, and a black tail with two or three white bars. The bill is blue and the legs grey. The flight is a deliberate flap-flap-glide. Immature birds have three colour morphs; the light phase is similar to the adult, but has a white head and neck, with a black crown and eyestripe, black bill and yellow legs, closely resembling the Black-and-white hawk-eagle (Spizaetus melanoleucus). The rufous phase has a reddish neck with a white throat, black malar stripes and a black, long crest closely resembling the adult Ornate hawk-eagle (Spizaetus ornatus). The dark phase has a blackish head, neck and upper parts, and dark-streaked buff underparts closely resembling the Black hawk-eagle (Spizaetus tyrannus). The sophistication in the mimicry of these juveniles is remarkable and... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valencia | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 2 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 4 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 5 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zoo Americana / Parque Ecológico Municipal | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | El Nispero Zoo | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | Agroflori Parque de las Aves | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | GüiráOga | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-headed Kite sighting in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary on a given day, based on 67 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 168th most-seen of the 277 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January–April, July, September and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-headed Kite in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary on a given day, against under 5% in May–June, August, October and December, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Gray-headed Kite 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 40 parks where we can rate Gray-headed Kite sightings, Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary ranks 8th at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 10%), Soberanía National Park (Panama, about 10%) and Anavilhanas National Park (Brazil, about 10%).
Same family: Accipitridae
The closest relatives of the Gray-headed Kite that you can see in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (family Accipitridae, Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) are Roadside Hawk (about 20%), White Hawk (about 10%) and Gray-lined Hawk (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Gray-headed Kite is recorded against all the birds logged in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (67 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
