Stilpnia larvata
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The golden-hooded tanager (Stilpnia larvata) is a medium-sized passerine bird. This tanager is a resident breeder from southern Mexico south to western Ecuador. Adult golden-hooded tanagers are 13 cm (5.1 in) long and weigh 19 g (0.67 oz). The adult male has a golden head with a black eyemask edged with violet blue above and below. The upperparts of the body are black apart from the turquoise shoulders, rump and edgings of the wings and tail. The flanks are blue and the central belly is white. Females have a greenish tinge to the head, sometimes with black speckling on the crown, and more extensively white underparts. Immatures are duller, with a green head, dark grey upperparts, off-white underparts, and little blue in the plumage.
The golden-hooded tanager's call is a sharp tsit and the song is a tuneless rattled series of tick sounds. It resides from sea level to 1,500 metres (4,920 ft) altitude in the canopy of dense forests and semi-open areas like clearings, second growth and well-vegetated gardens.
Golden-hooded tanagers occur in pairs, family groups or as part of a mixed-species feeding flock. They eat certain small fruit (e.g. of Trophis racemosa (Moraceae)) usually swallowed whole, and insects are also taken. The cup nest is built in a tree fork or in a bunch of green bananas, and the normal clutch is two brown-blotched white eggs. This species is often double-brooded, and the young birds from the first clutch assist with feeding the second brood of chicks. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 2 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Golden-hooded Tanager sighting in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve on a given day, based on 24 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 150th most-seen of the 240 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.
March–August and October–January
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Golden-hooded Tanager in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in February and September, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Golden-hooded Tanager sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
27th of 33
Of the 33 parks where we can rate Golden-hooded Tanager sightings, Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve ranks 27th at about 10%. The best odds are in Chagres National Park (Panama, about 70%), Chirripó National Park (Costa Rica, about 50%) and Arenal Volcano National Park (Costa Rica, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Thraupidae
The closest relatives of the Golden-hooded Tanager that you can see in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (family Thraupidae, Tanagers and Allies) are Black-headed Saltator (about 30%), Morelet's Seedeater (about 30%) and Blue-gray Tanager (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Golden-hooded Tanager is recorded against all the birds logged in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (24 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.
