Platyrinchus mystaceus
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The white-throated spadebill (Platyrinchus mystaceus) is a tiny passerine bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, on Trinidad and Tobago, and in every mainland South American country except Chile, French Guiana, Uruguay, and Suriname.
The white-throated spadebill's taxonomy has not been settled. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC), the Clements taxonomy, and the American Ornithological Society (AOS) assign it these 14 subspecies: However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats the first five subspecies as the "western white-throated spadebill" (P. albogularis) and the other nine as the "eastern white-throated spadebill" (P. mystaceus). One author who advocates the two-species model calls them respectively the "white-throated" and "yellow-crested" spadebills. The Clements taxonomy and the AOS partition the subspecies as the albogularis and mystaceus groups within the species.
What is now the stub-tailed spadebill (P. cancrominus) was treated by several early twentieth century authors as another subspecies of P. mystaceus. This article follows the one species... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serra dos Órgãos National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Itatiaia National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 4 | Main Ridge Forest Reserve | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 5 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | La Amistad International Park (Panama) | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 7 | Serra da Canastra National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Iguaçu National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 10 | Tapantí-Macizo de la Muerte National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 11 | Braulio Carrillo National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 12 | Iguazú National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 13 | Arenal Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 14 | Volcán Barú National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 15 | Henri Pittier National Park | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 16 | Chirripó National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 17 | Tijuca National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 18 | Tenorio Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 19 | Farallones de Cali National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 20 | Poás Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 21 | Los Quetzales National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-throated Spadebill sighting in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve on a given day, based on 1,201 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 106th most-seen of the 412 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, about 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-throated Spadebill in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-throated Spadebill 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 21
Of the 21 parks where we can rate White-throated Spadebill sightings, Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Serra dos Órgãos National Park (Brazil, about 30%) and Itatiaia National Park (Brazil, about 20%).
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the White-throated Spadebill that you can see in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Tropical Kingbird (about 40%), Great Kiskadee (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 White-throated Spadebill is recorded against all the birds logged in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (1,201 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.
