Tersina viridis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The swallow tanager (Tersina viridis) is a species of Neotropic bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It occurs regularly in Panama, on Trinidad, and in every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay. It has occurred as a vagrant in those two countries and on Tobago and Bonaire and there are unconfirmed reports from Curaçao.
The swallow tanager was formally described in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger with the binomial Hirundo viridis, mistakenly classifying it as a swallow. The type locality is eastern Brazil. The species is now the only member of the genus Tersina that was introduced in 1819 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The genus name is from the French Tersine, an unidentified bird described by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. The specific epithet viridis is the Latin for "green". Some mid-twentieth century authors placed the genus in its own family, Tersinidae. A molecular phylogenetic study of the tanager family published in 2014 found that the swallow tanager is a Thraupidae tanager and is sister to the honeycreepers in the genus Cyanerpes.
The swallow tanager...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Serra da Canastra National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Itatiaia National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Henri Pittier National Park | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Iguaçu National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Iguazú National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 8 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 9 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 10 | Serra dos Órgãos National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 11 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 12 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 13 | Madidi National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 14 | Tijuca National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 15 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 16 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 17 | Farallones de Cali National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 18 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 19 | Tayrona National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 20 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Brasilia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Campinas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Santos | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | San Diego Zoo Safari Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Berlin Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Houston Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Aquarium Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Swallow Tanager sighting in Madidi National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 179th most-seen of the 239 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Swallow Tanager in Madidi National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February, April, June–August and November, the lowest months. March and December have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Swallow Tanager sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 20
Of the 20 parks where we can rate Swallow Tanager sightings, Madidi National Park ranks 13th at about 10%. The best odds are in Chapada dos Guimarães National Park (Brazil, about 50%), Sierra de la Macarena National Park (Colombia, about 40%) and Serra da Canastra National Park (Brazil, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Thraupidae
The closest relatives of the Swallow Tanager that you can see in Madidi National Park (family Thraupidae, Tanagers and Allies) are Red-capped Cardinal (about 40%), Silver-beaked Tanager (about 30%) and Palm Tanager (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Swallow Tanager is recorded against all the birds logged in Madidi National Park (7 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.
