Myrmeciza exsul
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The chestnut-backed antbird (Poliocrania exsul) is a passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
The chestnut-backed antbird was described by the English zoologist Philip Sclater in 1859 and given the binomial name Myrmeciza exsul. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013 found that the genus Myrmeciza, as then defined, was polyphyletic. In the resulting rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, the chestnut-backed antbird was moved to a newly erected genus Poliocrania. The name of the new genus combines the Ancient Greek words polios "ash-gray" and kranion "head" or "skull". The chestnut-backed antbird is the only member of genus Poliocrania.
The International Ornithological Congress, the Clements taxonomy, and both the North and South American Classification Committees of the American Ornithological Society assign these five subspecies to the chestnut-backed antbird: Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-backed Antbird sighting in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 705 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 21st most-seen of the 329 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May–June and October
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-backed Antbird in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against about 20% in November, the lowest month.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chestnut-backed Antbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 25
Of the 25 parks where we can rate Chestnut-backed Antbird sightings, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge ranks 5th at about 40%. The best odds are in Corcovado National Park (Costa Rica, about 60%), Utría National Natural Park (Colombia, about 50%) and Carara National Park (Costa Rica, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Thamnophilidae
The closest relatives of the Chestnut-backed Antbird that you can see in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (family Thamnophilidae, Typical Antbirds) are Western Slaty-Antshrike (about 30%) and Barred Antshrike (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chestnut-backed Antbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (705 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.
