Vermivora cyanoptera
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The blue-winged warbler (Vermivora cyanoptera) is a fairly common migratory New World warbler, 11.5 cm (4.5 in) long and weighing 8.5 g (0.30 oz). It breeds in eastern North America in southern Ontario and the eastern United States and winters in southern Central America. Its breeding range is extending northwards, where it is replacing the very closely related golden-winged warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera).
In 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus described a new species in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Certhia pinus. Linnaeus based his entry on the "pine-creeper" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalists Mark Catesby in 1731 and George Edwards in 1760. Edwards had doubts as to whether his specimen was the same species as illustrated by Catesby and included as a footnote "On a stricter examination I think it a species different from Catesby's". Edwards' etching actually depicted a blue-winged warbler so that Linnaeus's name applied to both the pine warbler and the blue-winged warbler. In 1810 the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson redescribed the blue-winged warbler under the binomial name Sylvia solitaria... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 5 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-winged Warbler sighting in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 266th most-seen of the 279 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-winged Warbler in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue-winged Warbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
23rd of 23
Of the 23 parks where we can rate Blue-winged Warbler sightings, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge ranks 23rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Tikal National Park (Guatemala, about 10%), Biotopo Cerro Cahuí (Guatemala, about 10%) and Cerro Azul Meámbar National Park (Honduras, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue-winged Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (7 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.
