Chloroceryle aenea
Silhouette: Steven Traver · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The American pygmy kingfisher (Chloroceryle aenea) is a species of "water kingfisher" in subfamily Cerylinae of family Alcedinidae. It is found in the American tropics from southern Mexico south through Central America into every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay. It also occurs on Trinidad.
The first formal description of the American pygmy kingfisher was by the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 under the binomial name Alcedo aenea. The specific epithet aenea is from the Latin aeneus meaning "of a bronze colour". The current genus Chloroceryle was erected by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1848.
A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2006 found that the American pygmy kingfisher was a sister species to a clade containing the green-and-rufous kingfisher (C. inda) and the green kingfisher (C. americana). The American pygmy kingfisher is about 13 cm (5.1 in) long. Males weigh 10 to 16 g (0.35 to 0.56 oz) and females 12 to 16 g (0.42 to 0.56 oz). It has the typical kingfisher shape, with a shaggy... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 2 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an American Pygmy Kingfisher sighting in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 91 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 155th most-seen of the 329 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.
January, May–June and August–October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an American Pygmy Kingfisher in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in February–April, July and November–December, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most American Pygmy Kingfisher sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 33
Of the 33 parks where we can rate American Pygmy Kingfisher sightings, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge ranks 13th at about 10%. The best odds are in Caroni Swamp (Trinidad and Tobago, about 30%), Celestún Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 20%) and Yasuní National Park (Ecuador, about 20%).
Same genus: Chloroceryle
The closest relatives of the American Pygmy Kingfisher that you can see in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (genus Chloroceryle, American Green Kingfishers) are Green Kingfisher (about 10%) and Amazon Kingfisher (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the American Pygmy Kingfisher is recorded against all the birds logged in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (91 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.
