Poecile sclateri
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The Mexican chickadee (Poecile sclateri) is a small passerine songbird in the family Paridae, the tits and chickadees. It is found in Mexico and the U. S. states of Arizona and New Mexico. The Mexican chickadee was originally described in 1857 as Parus meridionalis by Philip Sclater. However, that species name had already been applied to another species (the marsh tit, now Poecile palustris), by Wilhelm Lilljeborg in 1852, invalidating Sclater's name under the principle of priority. Otto Kleinschmidt noted this, and renamed it Parus sclateri in 1897, honoring the original discoverer. It remained included in the genus Parus for much of the twentieth century. Following a 1996 publication, in 1998 the American Ornithologists' Union reassigned it to Poecile, a genus that had been erected in 1829 and had long been treated as a subgenus of Parus. A 2005 paper used mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data and morphology to agree with that change and suggest it should be universally adopted. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World did so in 2016 and the IOC and the Clements taxonomy followed suit by 2018.
The Mexican chickadee has four accepted subspecies... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 2 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Mexican Chickadee sighting in Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca on a given day, based on 67 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 23rd most-seen of the 103 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.
December
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Mexican Chickadee in Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca on a given day, against about 10% in March, the lowest month. That is one of Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain against 270 mm in July. April and June–September have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mexican Chickadee sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Mexican Chickadee sightings, Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca has the highest daily chance: about 30%. Next come Cumbres de Monterrey National Park (Mexico, under 5%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Mexican Chickadee that you can see in Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Yellow-eyed Junco (about 80%), Ruby-crowned Kinglet (about 70%) and Red Warbler (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Mexican Chickadee is recorded against all the birds logged in Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca (67 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.
