Patagioenas speciosa
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The scaled pigeon (Patagioenas speciosa) is a large New World tropical dove. It is a resident breeder from southern Mexico south to western Ecuador, southern Brazil, northern Argentina, and Trinidad. The scaled pigeon is fairly common in semi-open forest. It builds a stick platform nest in a tree and lays two white eggs.
Its flight is high, fast and direct, with the regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings which are characteristic of pigeons in general. It is usually very wary, since it is frequently hunted. The scaled pigeon was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other doves and pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba speciosa. Gmelin based his description on "Le Ramiret" and the "Pigeon ramier de Cayenne" that had been described and illustrated in 1871 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. The scaled pigeon was moved to the resurrected genus Patagioenas based on a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2001. The genus had been introduced by the German naturalist... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | João Pessoa | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | Bogota | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zoo Pilsen | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 2 | Wilhelma | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Dallas World Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Scaled Pigeon sighting in Darién National Park on a given day, based on 27 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 207th 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 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, March–May, July and September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Scaled Pigeon in Darién National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, June, August and October–December, the lowest months.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Scaled Pigeon sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
12th of 28
Of the 28 parks where we can rate Scaled Pigeon sightings, Darién National Park ranks 12th at about 10%. The best odds are in Chapada dos Guimarães National Park (Brazil, about 40%), Chagres National Park (Panama, about 30%) and Soberanía National Park (Panama, about 20%).
Same genus: Patagioenas
The closest relatives of the Scaled Pigeon that you can see in Darién National Park (genus Patagioenas, New World Pigeons) are Plumbeous Pigeon (about 20%), Ruddy Pigeon (about 10%) and Short-billed Pigeon (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Scaled Pigeon is recorded against all the birds logged in Darién National Park (27 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.
