Stelgidopteryx ruficollis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The southern rough-winged swallow (Stelgidopteryx ruficollis) a species of bird in the family Hirundinidae, the swallows and martins. It is found in Central America from Honduras south, in every mainland South American country except Chile, on Trinidad, and as a vagrant to Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Tobago, and the Falkland Islands.
The southern rough-winged swallow was originally described in 1817 as Hirundo ruficollis by French ornithologist Louis Vieillot in his Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle. It was later reassigned to its present genus Stelgidopteryx which was erected in 1858. For much of the twentieth century it and what is now the northern rough-winged swallow (S. serripennis) were treated as conspecific. They are the only members of the genus and form a superspecies.
The southern rough-winged swallow has these four subspecies: The sexes have almost the same plumage. Adult males of the nominate... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salvador | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | João Pessoa | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Recife | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Cali | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 7 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Vitória | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Rough-winged Swallow sighting in Iguazú National Park on a given day, based on 304 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 148th most-seen of the 343 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.
August to December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Rough-winged Swallow in Iguazú National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January to July, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Southern Rough-winged Swallow sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
31st of 56
Of the 56 parks where we can rate Southern Rough-winged Swallow sightings, Iguazú National Park ranks 31st at about 10%. The best odds are in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (Brazil, about 70%), Serra da Canastra National Park (Brazil, about 60%) and Emas National Park (Brazil, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Hirundinidae
The closest relatives of the Southern Rough-winged Swallow that you can see in Iguazú National Park (family Hirundinidae, Swallows and Martins) are Gray-breasted Martin (about 30%), Blue-and-white Swallow (about 10%) and White-winged Swallow (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Southern Rough-winged Swallow is recorded against all the birds logged in Iguazú National Park (304 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.
