Phaethornis koepckeae
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Koepcke's hermit (Phaethornis koepckeae) is a species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae. It is endemic to Peru. Koepcke's hermit is monotypic. It and the needle-billed hermit (P. philippii) are sister species and may form a superspecies.
Koepcke's hermit is 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long. Males weigh 4.7 to 5.8 g (0.17 to 0.20 oz) and females 4.5 to 4.9 g (0.16 to 0.17 oz). It is one of the few hermit hummingbirds with a nearly straight bill. It has a blackish crown glossed with greenish, a glossy greenish bronze nape, a glossy bronze back, and a rufous rump. The tail is mostly dark glossy green. The innermost pair of tail feathers are longer than the others and have white tips; the others have broad buffy rufous tips. The face has a black "mask" bordered with narrow white streaks. The chin and throat are white, the center of the breast pale reddish buff with grayer sides, and the belly and flanks a rich reddish buff.
Koepcke's hermit is found on the eastern foothills of the Peruvian Andes from just south of the Marañón River in Amazonas south to central Madre de Dios. In elevation it ranges between... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Koepcke's Hermit sighting in Manu National Park on a given day, based on 147 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 315th most-seen of the 641 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March to July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Koepcke's Hermit in Manu National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August to February, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Koepcke's Hermit 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 Manu National Park, in our data
Manu National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Koepcke's Hermit sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Phaethornis
The closest relatives of the Koepcke's Hermit that you can see in Manu National Park (genus Phaethornis, Typical Hermits) are White-bearded Hermit (about 30%), Great-billed Hermit (about 10%) and Reddish Hermit (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Koepcke's Hermit is recorded against all the birds logged in Manu National Park (147 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.
