Oncostoma olivaceum
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The southern bentbill (Oncostoma olivaceum) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Colombia and Panama. The southern bentbill was originally described in 1862 as Todirostrum olivaceum. It was later moved to genus Oncostoma that Philip Sclater had created that same year.
The southern bentbill is monotypic. It shares genus Oncostoma with the northern bentbill (O. cinereigulare); in the early twentieth century at least one author considered them to be conspecific. The two form a superspecies.
The southern bentbill is about 9 cm (3.5 in) long and weighs about 6 to 7 g (0.21 to 0.25 oz). It has a distinctive fairly thick downcurved bill. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly olive head with a whitish area above the lores. Their back, rump, and uppertail coverts are olive. Their wings are dusky with lemon yellow edges on the flight feathers and greenish yellow tips on the coverts; the latter show as two indistinct wing bars. Their tail is dusky olive. Their throat and breast are yellowish white with olive streaks, their belly yellow, and their flanks olive-yellow with some olive... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soberanía National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 2 | San Lorenzo Protected Forest | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | Parque Natural Metropolitano | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 4 | Tayrona National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 6 | Chagres National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Bentbill 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 135th most-seen of the 397 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Bentbill in Darién National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February and June, the lowest months. That is one of Darién National Park's wettest months, with about 450 mm of rain against 100 mm in February.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Southern Bentbill sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Southern Bentbill sightings, Darién National Park ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Soberanía National Park (Panama, about 30%), San Lorenzo Protected Forest (Panama, about 30%) and Parque Natural Metropolitano (Panama, about 10%).
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Southern Bentbill that you can see in Darién National Park (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Bright-rumped Attila (about 20%), Tropical Kingbird (about 20%) and Acadian Flycatcher (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Southern Bentbill 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.
