Phacellodomus ruber
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The greater thornbird (Phacellodomus ruber) is a species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The greater thornbird is monotypic. It and the freckle-breasted thornbird (P. striaticollis) are sister species.
The greater thornbird is 19 to 21 cm (7.5 to 8.3 in) long and weighs about 35 to 51 g (1.2 to 1.8 oz). It is heaviest and reddest thornbird. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly rufescent brown to grayish brown face with a paler supercilium and ear coverts and a whitish malar area. Their crown is reddish chestnut with pale streaks, their back rich reddish brown to olive-brown that sometimes becomes chestnut on the lower back, their rump a lighter rufescent brown, and their uppertail coverts chestnut. Their wings are a nearly uniform rufous-chestnut and their tail reddish chestnut. Their throat is whitish, their breast pale with a light brownish tinge, their belly whitish, and their undertail coverts light rufescent brown. Their iris is light yellow to orange, their maxilla blackish to dark grayish horn, their mandible... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iberá National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | El Impenetrable National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rosario | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 3 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Brasilia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Buenos Aires | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Thornbird sighting in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas on a given day, based on 542 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 74th most-seen of the 308 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July–August and December
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Thornbird in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas on a given day, against about 10% in October, the lowest month. 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 Greater Thornbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Greater Thornbird sightings, Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Iberá National Park (Argentina, about 60%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Greater Thornbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (542 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.
