Setophaga fusca
Silhouette: Dylan GE Gomes · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The Blackburnian warbler (Setophaga fusca) is a small New World warbler. They breed in eastern North America, from southern Canada, westwards to the southern Canadian Prairies, the Great Lakes region and New England, to North Carolina. They are migratory, wintering in southern Central America and South America, and are very rare vagrants to western Europe. The common name honors the English botanist Anna Blackburne.
The Blackburnian warbler was formally described in 1776 by the German zoologist Philipp Statius Müller under the binomial name Motacilla fusca. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "dusky", "black" or "brown". Müller based his account on a handcoloured plate of the "Figuier étranger" that had been engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet to accompany the Comte de Buffon's multivolume work Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The type location is French Guiana. The Blackburnian warbler is now placed in the genus Setophaga that was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827. The genus name Setophaga combines the Ancient Greek σης/sēs, σητος/sētos meaning "moth" with -φαγος/-phagos meaning "-eating". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised... Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center and Woods Garden | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blackburnian Warbler sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 526 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 68th most-seen of the 173 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.
May–June and September
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Blackburnian Warbler in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July and October–March, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blackburnian Warbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
17th of 55
Of the 55 parks where we can rate Blackburnian Warbler sightings, Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranks 17th at about 10%. The best odds are in Farallones de Cali National Natural Park (Colombia, about 50%), Point Pelee National Park (Canada, about 40%) and Riding Mountain National Park (Canada, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Setophaga
The closest relatives of the Blackburnian Warbler that you can see in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (genus Setophaga, Setophaga Warblers) are Northern Parula (about 40%), Black-throated Green Warbler (about 30%) and Hooded Warbler (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blackburnian Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (526 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.
