Setophaga tigrina
Silhouette: Dylan GE Gomes · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The Cape May warbler (Setophaga tigrina) is a species of New World warbler. It breeds in northern North America. Its breeding range spans all but the westernmost parts of southern Canada, the Great Lakes region, and New England. It is migratory, wintering in the West Indies. This species is a very rare vagrant to western Europe, with two records in Britain as of October 2013. The English name refers to Cape May, New Jersey, where George Ord collected the specimen that was later described by Alexander Wilson.
The Cape May warbler was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla tigrina. The specific epithet is from Latin tigrinus meaning "tigrine" or "barred or striped like a tiger". Gmelin based his account on "The yellow spotted fly-catcher" that had been described by the English naturalist George Edwards in 1758, and "Le figuier brun de Canada" that had been described by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The Cape May warbler is now one of more than 30 species placed in the genus... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 2 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 3 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 5 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center and Woods Garden | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Cape May Warbler sighting in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 187 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 159th most-seen of the 279 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and September–October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Cape May Warbler in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in May–August and November–March, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cape May 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.
17th of 30
Of the 30 parks where we can rate Cape May Warbler sightings, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge ranks 17th at under 5%. The best odds are in Point Pelee National Park (Canada, about 40%), Ciénaga de Zapata (Cuba, about 40%) and Los Haitises National Park (Dominican Republic, about 30%).
Same genus: Setophaga
The closest relatives of the Cape May Warbler that you can see in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (genus Setophaga, Setophaga Warblers) are Yellow-rumped Warbler (about 40%), Palm Warbler (about 40%) and Northern Parula (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cape May Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (187 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.
