Notharchus swainsoni
Silhouette: Matt Wilkins (Photo by Len Blumin) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The buff-bellied puffbird (Notharchus swainsoni) is a species of bird in the family Bucconidae, the puffbirds, nunlets, and nunbirds. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. During the second half of the twentieth century, the buff-bellied puffbird and what are now the white-necked puffbird (N. hyperrhynchus) and Guianan puffbird (N. macrorhynchus) were treated as conspecific. It is now treated as its own monotypic species.
The buff-bellied puffbird is about 23.5 cm (9.3 in) long and weighs 72 to 75.6 g (2.5 to 2.7 oz). The crown and upperparts are black with a green gloss and buffy edges to the feathers. It has a narrow white forehead, throat, and upper breast. The sides of the face and a thin band around the nape are grayish white. A wide black band separates the upper breast from the buffy to pale rufous belly. The flanks are gray. Its eye color can be straw, brown, or red.
The buff-bellied puffbird is found in eastern Paraguay, far northeastern Argentina's Misiones Province, and in southeastern Brazil from southern Bahia and Espírito Santo south to Santa Catarina. It is resident in Argentina... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serra dos Órgãos National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Iguazú National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Iguaçu National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Buff-bellied Puffbird sighting in Iguaçu National Park on a given day, based on 166 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 176th most-seen of the 346 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February, May, July and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Buff-bellied Puffbird in Iguaçu National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–April, June, August–October and December–January, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Buff-bellied Puffbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 3
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Buff-bellied Puffbird sightings, Iguaçu National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Serra dos Órgãos National Park (Brazil, about 10%) and Iguazú National Park (Argentina, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Buff-bellied Puffbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Iguaçu National Park (166 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.
