Thalurania furcata
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The fork-tailed woodnymph (Thalurania furcata) is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay. The fork-tailed woodnymph was formally described in 1788 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 hummingbirds in the genus Trochilus and coined the binomial name Trochilus furcatus. The fork-tailed woodnymph is now placed with three other woodnymphs in the genus Thalurania that was introduced in 1848 by the English ornithologist John Gould. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek thalos meaning "child" with ouranos meaning "heaven". The specific epithet furcata is from Medieval Latin furcatus meaning "forked".
Thirteen subspecies of fork-tailed woodnymph are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname | |
| 2 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 5 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 6 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 8 | Serra da Canastra National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 10 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 11 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 12 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 13 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 14 | Chapada Diamantina National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 15 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Brasilia | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Fork-tailed Woodnymph sighting in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas on a given day, based on 130 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 145th most-seen of the 308 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.
June
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Fork-tailed Woodnymph in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas on a given day, against under 5% in May and October–December, the lowest months. That is one of Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 190 mm in January. January to April have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Fork-tailed Woodnymph sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
11th of 15
Of the 15 parks where we can rate Fork-tailed Woodnymph sightings, Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas ranks 11th at about 10%. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 60%), Chapada dos Guimarães National Park (Brazil, about 30%) and Amboró National Park (Bolivia, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Trochilidae
The closest relatives of the Fork-tailed Woodnymph that you can see in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (family Trochilidae, Hummingbirds) are Glittering-throated Emerald (about 10%) and Gilded Hummingbird (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fork-tailed Woodnymph is recorded against all the birds logged in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (130 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.
