Cantorchilus modestus
Silhouette: Matt Wilkins · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
Cabanis's wren (Cantorchilus modestus) is a species of bird in the family Troglodytidae. It is found in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Cabanis's wren, with what are now the canebrake wren (C. zeledoni) and the isthmian wren (C. elutus), were called the plain wren. The three were split from each other in 2016 on the basis of a 2015 publication that described their different vocalizations and genetic divergence. Cabanis's wren is monotypic according to the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and the Clements taxonomy. However, BirdLife International (BLI) retains C. modestus as "plain wren" with elutus as a subspecies of it rather than as a full species.
Cabanis's wren is 12.5 to 14 cm (4.9 to 5.5 in) long. Two males weighed 17.8 and 19.1 g (0.63 and 0.67 oz) and two females 16.0 and 16.6 g (0.56 and 0.59 oz). Adults have a dark gray-brown crown, a rufous-brown back, an orange-rufous rump, and a rufescent brown tail with narrow darker bars. They have a white supercilium, a gray-brown stripe behind the eye, and cheeks mottled gray-brown and gray-white. Their throat is white, the chest... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 3 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 4 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 5 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 6 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 7 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Cabanis's Wren sighting in La Tigra National Park on a given day, based on 170 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 8th most-seen of the 176 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Cabanis's Wren in La Tigra National Park on a given day, against about 20% in February and March, the lowest months. That is one of La Tigra National Park's wettest months, with about 250 mm of rain against 25 mm in February.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cabanis's Wren sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 36 parks where we can rate Cabanis's Wren sightings, La Tigra National Park has the highest daily chance: about 50%. Next come Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (Costa Rica, about 40%) and Chagres National Park (Panama, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Troglodytidae
The closest relatives of the Cabanis's Wren that you can see in La Tigra National Park (family Troglodytidae, Wrens) are Southern House Wren (about 40%), Rufous-backed Wren (about 20%) and Rufous-browed Wren (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cabanis's Wren is recorded against all the birds logged in La Tigra National Park (170 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.
