Falco rufigularis
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The bat falcon (Falco rufigularis) is a bird of prey in the family Falconidae, the falcons and caracaras. It is found in Mexico, Central America, Trinidad, and every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay.
The bat falcon was long known as Falco albigularis; the names Falco fusco-coerulescens or Falco fuscocaerulescens, long used for the aplomado falcon (F. femoralis), are now believed to refer to the present species. The bat falcon has these three subspecies:
Others add a fourth subspecies F. r. petrophilus that is usually included in petoensis. The bat falcon is closely related to and looks like a small version of the orange-breasted falcon (F. deiroleucus), with which it has often been misidentified. They share plumage and vocal characteristics and are sister species. These two had been thought to be closely related to the aplomado... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vitória | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 3 | Manaus | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 9 | Cali | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 10 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Bat Falcon sighting in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve on a given day, based on 92 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 96th most-seen of the 328 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Bat Falcon in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve on a given day, against about 10% in January, March–May, July, September and November, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bat Falcon sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 64
Of the 64 parks where we can rate Bat Falcon sightings, Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve ranks 6th at about 10%. The best odds are in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 40%), Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 30%) and Chapada dos Guimarães National Park (Brazil, about 20%).
Same family: Falconidae
The closest relatives of the Bat Falcon that you can see in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (family Falconidae, Falcons and Caracaras) are Black Caracara (about 40%), Laughing Falcon (about 10%) and Red-throated Caracara (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Bat Falcon is recorded against all the birds logged in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (92 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.
