Sturnella bellicosa
Silhouette: Matt Wilkins · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The Peruvian meadowlark (Leistes bellicosus) is a species of bird in the family Icteridae, the oropendolas, New World orioles, and New World blackbirds. It is found in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The Peruvian meadowlark has a complicated taxonomic history. It was formally described in 1847 with the binomial Sturnella bellicosa. For a time it and two other species were separated in genus Pezites. This genus was later again merged into Sturnella. In 2016 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World assigned it to its current genus Leistes that had been erected in 1825. By 2019 the IOC, the Clements taxonomy, and the South American Classification Committee had also made the reassignment.
The Peruvian meadowlark is about 21 cm (8.3 in) long and weighs 61 to 78 g (2.2 to 2.8 oz); males are larger than females. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a mostly black head with a white forehead, a long supercilium that is red from the bill to the eye and white beyond it, a white... Wikipedia →
Recording0:20
Chile · 2025
© Richard Hasegawa · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:25
Ecuador · 2021
© Marcelo F. Amores-Palma · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording4:13
Ecuador · 2022
© Marcelo Amores · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machalilla National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Peruvian Meadowlark sighting in Machalilla National Park on a given day, based on 51 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 103rd most-seen of the 248 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.
January and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Peruvian Meadowlark in Machalilla National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, May–July and December, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Peruvian Meadowlark sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Machalilla National Park, in our data
Machalilla National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Peruvian Meadowlark sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Icteridae
The closest relatives of the Peruvian Meadowlark that you can see in Machalilla National Park (family Icteridae, New World Blackbirds and Orioles) are Scrub Blackbird (about 50%), Yellow-rumped Cacique (about 30%) and Shiny Cowbird (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Peruvian Meadowlark is recorded against all the birds logged in Machalilla National Park (51 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.
