Aphrastura spinicauda
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The thorn-tailed rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda), is a species of bird in the family Furnariidae. It is found in temperate forests and subtropical dry shrubland south of 30°S. Some sources suggest it may formerly have occurred in the Falkland Islands. It remains the most common and best-known native bird in temperate forests of Zona Austral and Zona Sur in Chile, often occurring at densities of well over one individual per hectare.
The thorn-tailed rayadito 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 the wagtails in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla spinicauda. Gmelin based his description on the "thorn-tailed warbler" that had been described and illustrated by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a water-colour drawing of the bird by Georg Forster who had accompanied James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The picture was drawn in December 1774 at the Tierra del Fuego. This picture is held by the Natural History... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tierra del Fuego National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile | |
| 3 | Nahuel Huapi National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Torres del Paine National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santiago | 🇨🇱 Chile |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Thorn-tailed Rayadito sighting in Nahuel Huapi National Park on a given day, based on 741 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 13th most-seen of the 111 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.
May
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Thorn-tailed Rayadito in Nahuel Huapi National Park on a given day, against about 30% in July to September, the lowest months.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Thorn-tailed Rayadito 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 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Thorn-tailed Rayadito sightings, Nahuel Huapi National Park ranks 3rd at about 40%. The best odds are in Tierra del Fuego National Park (Argentina, about 80%) and Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park (Chile, about 70%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Furnariidae
The closest relatives of the Thorn-tailed Rayadito that you can see in Nahuel Huapi National Park (family Furnariidae, Ovenbirds and Woodcreepers) are Dark-bellied Cinclodes (about 50%), White-throated Treerunner (about 30%) and Sharp-billed Canastero (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Thorn-tailed Rayadito is recorded against all the birds logged in Nahuel Huapi National Park (741 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.
