Cyclarhis gujanensis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The rufous-browed peppershrike (Cyclarhis gujanensis) is a passerine bird in the vireo family. It is widespread and often common in woodland, forest edge, and cultivation with some tall trees from Mexico and Trinidad south to Argentina and Uruguay.
The rufous-browed peppershrike 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 Tanagra and coined the binomial name Tanagra gujanensis. The specific epithet is derived from the type locality, the Guianas. Gmelin based his account on "Le verderoux" from French Guiana that had been described in 1778 by the French polymath Comte de Buffon in his multivolume Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The rufous-browed peppershrike is now placed with the black-billed peppershrike in the genus Cyclarhis that was introduced in 1824 by William Swainson.
Twenty two subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-browed Peppershrike sighting in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve on a given day, based on 810 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 125th most-seen of the 412 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 to October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-browed Peppershrike in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in November to February, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rufous-browed Peppershrike sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
34th of 52
Of the 52 parks where we can rate Rufous-browed Peppershrike sightings, Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve ranks 34th at about 10%. The best odds are in El Impenetrable National Park (Argentina, about 60%), Itatiaia National Park (Brazil, about 50%) and Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park (Mexico, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Vireonidae
The closest relatives of the Rufous-browed Peppershrike that you can see in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (family Vireonidae, Vireos, Shrike-Babblers, and Erpornis) are Lesser Greenlet (about 30%), Philadelphia Vireo (about 10%) and Yellow-throated Vireo (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rufous-browed Peppershrike is recorded against all the birds logged in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (810 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.
