Elaenia flavogaster
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The yellow-bellied elaenia (Elaenia flavogaster) is a small bird in subfamily Elaeniinae of family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Mexico, in every Central American country, in every mainland South American country except Chile, on Trinidad and Tobago, and on several islands in the Lesser Antilles.
The yellow-bellied elaenia was formally described in 1822 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg under the binomial name Pipra flavogaster. The type locality is Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The yellow-bellied elaenia is now one of 22 species placed in the genus Elaenia that was introduced in 1836 by Carl Jakob Sundevall. The specific epithet flavogaster combines the Latin flavus meaning "yellow" or "golden-yellow" with gaster meaning "belly".
Four subspecies are recognised: In the mid twentieth century at least one author treated the yellow-bellied elaenia and the large elaenia (E. spectabilis) as conspecific. The yellow-bellied elaenia is 15 to 17 cm (5.9 to 6.7 in) long and weighs... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natal | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Recife | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | João Pessoa | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Cali | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Salvador | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 10 | Niterói | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-bellied Elaenia sighting in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary on a given day, based on 288 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 66th most-seen of the 277 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and March
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-bellied Elaenia in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary on a given day, against under 5% in September, the lowest month. Those are among Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary's driest months, with about 95 mm of rain a month against 300 mm in June.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-bellied Elaenia sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
8th of 66
Of the 66 parks where we can rate Yellow-bellied Elaenia sightings, Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary ranks 8th at about 30%. The best odds are in Main Ridge Forest Reserve (Trinidad and Tobago, about 60%), Coiba National Park (Panama, about 40%) and Serra da Canastra National Park (Brazil, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Yellow-bellied Elaenia that you can see in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Great Kiskadee (about 60%), Social Flycatcher (about 60%) and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-bellied Elaenia is recorded against all the birds logged in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (288 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.
