Ictinia plumbea
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The plumbeous kite (Ictinia plumbea) is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae that is resident in much of northern South America. It is migratory in the northern part of its range which extends north to Mexico. It feeds on insects which it catches either from a perch or while in flight.
The plumbeous kite 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 the eagles, hawks and relatives in the genus Falco and coined the binomial name Falco plumbeus. Gmelin based his description on the "spotted-tailed hawk" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham from a specimen from Cayenne in a private collection in London. It is now placed with the Mississippi kite in the genus Ictinia that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek iktinos for a kite. The specific epithet plumbea is from Latin plumbeus meaning "leaded", "plumbeous" or "lead-coloured". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
The plumbeous kite is 34–37.5 cm... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | João Pessoa | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | Campinas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Valencia | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Brasilia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 9 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 10 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Plumbeous Kite sighting in Iguazú National Park on a given day, based on 1,357 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 59th most-seen of the 343 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October and November
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Plumbeous Kite in Iguazú National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March to August, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Plumbeous Kite sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 48
Of the 48 parks where we can rate Plumbeous Kite sightings, Iguazú National Park ranks 4th at about 20%. The best odds are in Manu National Park (Peru, about 30%), Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Ecuador, about 30%) and Yasuní National Park (Ecuador, about 20%).
Same family: Accipitridae
The closest relatives of the Plumbeous Kite that you can see in Iguazú National Park (family Accipitridae, Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) are Roadside Hawk (about 30%), Snail Kite (about 10%) and Short-tailed Hawk (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Plumbeous Kite is recorded against all the birds logged in Iguazú National Park (1,357 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.
