Cantorchilus modestus
Silhouette: Matt Wilkins · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Cabanis's wren (Cantorchilus modestus) is a species of bird in the family Troglodytidae. It is found in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Cabanis's wren, with what are now the canebrake wren (C. zeledoni) and the isthmian wren (C. elutus), were called the plain wren. The three were split from each other in 2016 on the basis of a 2015 publication that described their different vocalizations and genetic divergence. Cabanis's wren is monotypic according to the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and the Clements taxonomy. However, BirdLife International (BLI) retains C. modestus as "plain wren" with elutus as a subspecies of it rather than as a full species.
Cabanis's wren is 12.5 to 14 cm (4.9 to 5.5 in) long. Two males weighed 17.8 and 19.1 g (0.63 and 0.67 oz) and two females 16.0 and 16.6 g (0.56 and 0.59 oz). Adults have a dark gray-brown crown, a rufous-brown back, an orange-rufous rump, and a rufescent brown tail with narrow darker bars. They have a white supercilium, a gray-brown stripe behind the eye, and cheeks mottled gray-brown and gray-white. Their throat is white, the chest... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 3 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 4 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 5 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 6 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 7 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Cabanis's Wren sighting in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 105 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 147th 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 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Cabanis's Wren in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in February–April and December, the lowest months.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cabanis's Wren sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
24th of 36
Of the 36 parks where we can rate Cabanis's Wren sightings, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge ranks 24th at about 10%. The best odds are in La Tigra National Park (Honduras, about 50%), Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (Costa Rica, about 40%) and Chagres National Park (Panama, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Cantorchilus
The closest relatives of the Cabanis's Wren that you can see in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (genus Cantorchilus, Cantorchilus Wrens) are Bay Wren (about 40%) and Stripe-breasted Wren (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cabanis's Wren is recorded against all the birds logged in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (105 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.
