Sapayoa aenigma
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The sapayoa or broad-billed sapayoa (Sapayoa aenigma) is a suboscine passerine bird found Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama. As the sapayoa's specific epithet aenigma ("the enigma") implies, its relationships have long been elusive.
The sapayoa was formally described by the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert in 1903 under the present binomial name Sapayoa aenigma. It has always been considered a monotypic genus, Sapayoa, and historically regarded as a New World suboscine; in particular, it was assigned to the manakin family (Pipridae). However, the species was listed as incertae sedis (position uncertain) in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, because
"preliminary DNA-DNA hybridization comparisons... indicate that this species is either a relative of the Old World Eurylaimidae or a sister group of all other Tyrannida, as suggested by earlier biochemical studies.... In any event, it is not a close relative of manakins or any other recent tyrannoid."
More recent research suggests that it is not a New World suboscine at all, but an Old World suboscine. In 2004, it was shown that the sapayoa is an outlier to the New World suboscines. In an earlier analysis based... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Utría National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 2 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Sapayoa sighting in Darién National Park on a given day, based on 45 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 159th most-seen of the 397 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Sapayoa in Darién National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January, April, July–August and October–November, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sapayoa sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Sapayoa sightings, Darién National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Utría National Natural Park (Colombia, about 10%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Sapayoa that you can see in Darién National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Western Slaty-Antshrike (about 50%), Chestnut-backed Antbird (about 40%) and Golden-headed Manakin (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sapayoa is recorded against all the birds logged in Darién National Park (45 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.
