Attila spadiceus
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The bright-rumped attila or polymorphic attila (Attila spadiceus) is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family (Tyrannidae). It breeds from northwestern Mexico to western Ecuador, Bolivia and southeastern Brazil, and on Trinidad.
The bright-rumped attila was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the flycatcher in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa spadicea. The specific epithet is from Latin spadiceus meaning "chestnut coloured" or "date-coloured". Gmelin based his description on the "yellow-rumped flycatcher" from Cayenne that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. The bright-rumped attila is now one of seven flycatchers placed in the genus Attila that was introduced in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson.
Twelve subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Manaus | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 4 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Bright-rumped Attila sighting in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 432 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 43rd most-seen of the 329 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Bright-rumped Attila in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against about 10% in August and November, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bright-rumped Attila sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 57
Of the 57 parks where we can rate Bright-rumped Attila sightings, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge ranks 7th at about 30%. The best odds are in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (Belize, about 40%), Tikal National Park (Guatemala, about 30%) and Pico Bonito National Park (Honduras, about 30%).
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Bright-rumped Attila that you can see in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Great Kiskadee (about 70%), Social Flycatcher (about 40%) and Tropical Kingbird (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Bright-rumped Attila is recorded against all the birds logged in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (432 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.
