Tiaris olivaceus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The yellow-faced grassquit (Tiaris olivaceus) is a passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae and is the only member of the genus Tiaris. It is native to Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the yellow-faced grassquit in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). He used the French name Le bruant de S. Domingue and the Latin name Emberiza dominicensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the yellow-faced grassquit. Linnaeus included a terse description, coined the binomial name Emberiza olivacea and cited Brisson's work. The specific name olivaceus is Neo-Latin for "olive-green". This is now the only species placed in the genus Tiaris that was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827. The genus formerly contained... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 2 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 4 | Cali | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 6 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 7 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monteverde Theme Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-faced Grassquit sighting in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve on a given day, based on 5,516 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 17th most-seen of the 412 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and May
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-faced Grassquit in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve on a given day, against about 30% in September and November–December, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-faced Grassquit sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 45
Of the 45 parks where we can rate Yellow-faced Grassquit sightings, Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve ranks 5th at about 40%. The best odds are in Chagres National Park (Panama, about 60%), Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park (Mexico, about 60%) and Los Haitises National Park (Dominican Republic, about 60%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Thraupidae
The closest relatives of the Yellow-faced Grassquit that you can see in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (family Thraupidae, Tanagers and Allies) are Blue-gray Tanager (about 40%), Silver-throated Tanager (about 30%) and Bananaquit (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-faced Grassquit is recorded against all the birds logged in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (5,516 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.
