Elaenia flavogaster
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The yellow-bellied elaenia (Elaenia flavogaster) is a small bird in subfamily Elaeniinae of family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Mexico, in every Central American country, in every mainland South American country except Chile, on Trinidad and Tobago, and on several islands in the Lesser Antilles.
The yellow-bellied elaenia was formally described in 1822 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg under the binomial name Pipra flavogaster. The type locality is Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The yellow-bellied elaenia is now one of 22 species placed in the genus Elaenia that was introduced in 1836 by Carl Jakob Sundevall. The specific epithet flavogaster combines the Latin flavus meaning "yellow" or "golden-yellow" with gaster meaning "belly".
Four subspecies are recognised: In the mid twentieth century at least one author treated the yellow-bellied elaenia and the large elaenia (E. spectabilis) as conspecific. The yellow-bellied elaenia is 15 to 17 cm (5.9 to 6.7 in) long and weighs... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natal | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Recife | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | João Pessoa | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Cali | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Salvador | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 10 | Niterói | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-bellied Elaenia sighting in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 92 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 149th 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 and July
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-bellied Elaenia in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in February–March, August, October and December, the lowest months. Those are among Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge's wettest months, with about 480 mm of rain a month against 140 mm in March.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-bellied Elaenia sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
37th of 66
Of the 66 parks where we can rate Yellow-bellied Elaenia sightings, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge ranks 37th at about 10%. The best odds are in Main Ridge Forest Reserve (Trinidad and Tobago, about 60%), Coiba National Park (Panama, about 40%) and Serra da Canastra National Park (Brazil, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Yellow-bellied Elaenia 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 Yellow-bellied Elaenia is recorded against all the birds logged in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (92 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.
