Leptodon cayanensis
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The gray-headed kite (Leptodon cayanensis) is a raptor found in open woodland and swamp forests. It shares the genus Leptodon with the extremely rare white-collared kite. It breeds from eastern Mexico and Trinidad south to Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and northern Argentina.
The gray-headed kite is 46–53 cm in length and weighs 410–605 grams (.9–1.3 lb) The adult has a grey head, black upperparts, white underparts, and a black tail with two or three white bars. The bill is blue and the legs grey. The flight is a deliberate flap-flap-glide. Immature birds have three colour morphs; the light phase is similar to the adult, but has a white head and neck, with a black crown and eyestripe, black bill and yellow legs, closely resembling the Black-and-white hawk-eagle (Spizaetus melanoleucus). The rufous phase has a reddish neck with a white throat, black malar stripes and a black, long crest closely resembling the adult Ornate hawk-eagle (Spizaetus ornatus). The dark phase has a blackish head, neck and upper parts, and dark-streaked buff underparts closely resembling the Black hawk-eagle (Spizaetus tyrannus). The sophistication in the mimicry of these juveniles is remarkable and... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valencia | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 2 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 4 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 5 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zoo Americana / Parque Ecológico Municipal | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | El Nispero Zoo | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | Agroflori Parque de las Aves | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | GüiráOga | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-headed Kite sighting in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 22 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 280th most-seen of the 329 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-headed Kite in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in January to November, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Gray-headed Kite sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
34th of 40
Of the 40 parks where we can rate Gray-headed Kite sightings, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge ranks 34th at under 5%. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 10%), Soberanía National Park (Panama, about 10%) and Anavilhanas National Park (Brazil, about 10%).
Same family: Accipitridae
The closest relatives of the Gray-headed Kite that you can see in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (family Accipitridae, Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) are Common Black-Hawk (about 40%), Roadside Hawk (about 20%) and Broad-winged Hawk (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Gray-headed Kite is recorded against all the birds logged in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (22 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.
