Variegated Antpitta

Variegated Antpitta

Grallaria varia

Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability <5% · Rare
at Iguazú National Park

In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%

116 Verified sightings at Iguazú National Park From 2019 to 2026
362 In all 5 parks
August Best month
🌅 Crepuscular When it's spotted

About the Variegated Antpitta

The variegated antpitta (Grallaria varia) is a species of bird in the family Grallariidae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the Guianas, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. The variegated antpitta was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Formicarius varius in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The variegated antpitta is now placed in the genus Grallaria that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816. The genus name is from Neo-Latin grallarius meaning "stilt-walker". The specific epithet varia is from Latin varius meaning "various", "diverse" or "variegated".

The variegated antpitta has these five subspecies... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Song1:11

Brazil · 2004

© Brian Cox · XC727719 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Canto0:11

Brazil · 2019

© Caio Brito · XC556332 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song0:34

Brazil · 2017

© Fernando Igor de Godoy · XC705630 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Brownsberg Nature Park 🇸🇷 Suriname
~10%
2 Serra dos Órgãos National Park 🇧🇷 Brazil
~10%
3 Itatiaia National Park 🇧🇷 Brazil
<5%
4 Iguaçu National Park 🇧🇷 Brazil
<5%
5 Iguazú National Park 🇦🇷 Argentina
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Variegated Antpitta in Iguazú National Park?

Rare

Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Variegated Antpitta sighting in Iguazú National Park on a given day, based on 116 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 209th most-seen of the 343 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Variegated Antpitta in Iguazú National Park?

Any time of year

In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Variegated Antpitta in Iguazú National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.

What time of day is best to see a Variegated Antpitta?

Between 6 and 9 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Variegated Antpitta sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.

Which relatives of the Variegated Antpitta live in Iguazú National Park?

Same order: Passeriformes

The closest relatives of the Variegated Antpitta that you can see in Iguazú National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Great Kiskadee (about 80%), Pale-breasted Thrush (about 70%) and Plush-crested Jay (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Variegated Antpitta sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Variegated Antpitta is recorded against all the birds logged in Iguazú National Park (116 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.

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