Glaucidium brasilianum
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The ferruginous pygmy owl (Glaucidium brasilianum) is a species of small owl found in the southwestern United States, extending south through Mexico, Central America, and into South America, including countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina.
It is the most widely distributed species of pygmy owl in Central and South America and is believed to be one of the most common owls in these regions, where it lives in a variety of semi-open wooded habitats. The ferruginous pygmy owl was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. The species was originally assigned the binomial name Strix brasiliana, grouping it with other owls under the genus Strix. Although Gmelin did not directly cite it, his original description ultimately derived from the "Caburé", a small owl documented in 1648 by German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his work Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. The ferruginous pygmy owl is currently classified alongside 28 other small owls in the genus Glaucidium, introduced in 1826 by German zoologist Friedrich Boie. The genus name derives from the Ancient Greek... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 2 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 3 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 4 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 6 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 7 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 8 | Maceió | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parque Zoobotânico Getúlio Vargas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Amaru | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 3 | Complejo Turistico de Quistococha | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 4 | Aviario Nacional de Colombia | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Mangal das Garças | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Monkey Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 7 | Parque dos Falcões | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl sighting in Iguaçu National Park on a given day, based on 276 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 150th most-seen of the 346 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and July–December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl in Iguaçu National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February and April–June, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
34th of 49
Of the 49 parks where we can rate Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl sightings, Iguaçu National Park ranks 34th at about 10%. The best odds are in Cerro Azul Meámbar National Park (Honduras, about 40%), Celaque National Park (Honduras, about 30%) and Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 30%).
Same family: Strigidae
The closest relatives of the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl that you can see in Iguaçu National Park (family Strigidae, Typical Owls) are Burrowing Owl (about 20%) and Spectacled Owl (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl is recorded against all the birds logged in Iguaçu National Park (276 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.
