Oncostoma olivaceum
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The southern bentbill (Oncostoma olivaceum) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Colombia and Panama. The southern bentbill was originally described in 1862 as Todirostrum olivaceum. It was later moved to genus Oncostoma that Philip Sclater had created that same year.
The southern bentbill is monotypic. It shares genus Oncostoma with the northern bentbill (O. cinereigulare); in the early twentieth century at least one author considered them to be conspecific. The two form a superspecies.
The southern bentbill is about 9 cm (3.5 in) long and weighs about 6 to 7 g (0.21 to 0.25 oz). It has a distinctive fairly thick downcurved bill. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly olive head with a whitish area above the lores. Their back, rump, and uppertail coverts are olive. Their wings are dusky with lemon yellow edges on the flight feathers and greenish yellow tips on the coverts; the latter show as two indistinct wing bars. Their tail is dusky olive. Their throat and breast are yellowish white with olive streaks, their belly yellow, and their flanks olive-yellow with some olive... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soberanía National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 2 | San Lorenzo Protected Forest | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | Parque Natural Metropolitano | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 4 | Tayrona National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 6 | Chagres National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Bentbill sighting in Parque Natural Metropolitano on a given day, based on 419 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 62nd most-seen of the 328 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Bentbill in Parque Natural Metropolitano on a given day, against under 5% in July and August, the lowest months. That is one of Parque Natural Metropolitano's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 350 mm in July.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Southern Bentbill sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Southern Bentbill sightings, Parque Natural Metropolitano ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Soberanía National Park (Panama, about 30%) and San Lorenzo Protected Forest (Panama, about 30%).
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Southern Bentbill that you can see in Parque Natural Metropolitano (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Tropical Kingbird (about 80%), Common Tody-Flycatcher (about 30%) and Social Flycatcher (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Southern Bentbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Parque Natural Metropolitano (419 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.
