Panyptila cayennensis
Silhouette: Aviceda (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The lesser swallow-tailed swift or Cayenne swift (Panyptila cayennensis) is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae. It is found from southern Mexico through Central America; in every mainland South America country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay; and on Trinidad.
The lesser swallow-tailed swift 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 with all the swallows and swifts in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo cayennensis. Gmelin based his description on the "Martinet à collier blanc" that had been described in 1779 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. A hand-colored illustration of the bird was also published. The lesser swallow-tailed swift is now placed with the great swallow-tailed swift in the genus Panyptila that was introduced in 1847 by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek panu meaning "very" or "exceedingly" with ptilon meaning "wing". The specific... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 2 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift sighting in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 194th most-seen of the 240 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and September
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in October and December–July, the lowest months. Those are among Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve's wettest months, with about 280 mm of rain a month against 55 mm in March.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
10th of 35
Of the 35 parks where we can rate Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift sightings, Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve ranks 10th at under 5%. The best odds are in Bastimentos Island National Marine Park (Panama, about 20%), Tikal National Park (Guatemala, about 10%) and Soberanía National Park (Panama, about 10%).
Same family: Apodidae
The closest relatives of the Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift that you can see in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (family Apodidae, Swifts) are White-collared Swift (about 10%) and Vaux's Swift (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift is recorded against all the birds logged in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (11 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.
