Falco rufigularis
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The bat falcon (Falco rufigularis) is a bird of prey in the family Falconidae, the falcons and caracaras. It is found in Mexico, Central America, Trinidad, and every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay.
The bat falcon was long known as Falco albigularis; the names Falco fusco-coerulescens or Falco fuscocaerulescens, long used for the aplomado falcon (F. femoralis), are now believed to refer to the present species. The bat falcon has these three subspecies:
Others add a fourth subspecies F. r. petrophilus that is usually included in petoensis. The bat falcon is closely related to and looks like a small version of the orange-breasted falcon (F. deiroleucus), with which it has often been misidentified. They share plumage and vocal characteristics and are sister species. These two had been thought to be closely related to the aplomado... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vitória | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 3 | Manaus | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 9 | Cali | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 10 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Bat Falcon sighting in Ostional Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 21 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 120th most-seen of the 182 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Bat Falcon in Ostional Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in January–May and July–November, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bat Falcon sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
44th of 64
Of the 64 parks where we can rate Bat Falcon sightings, Ostional Wildlife Refuge ranks 44th at under 5%. The best odds are in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 40%), Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 30%) and Chapada dos Guimarães National Park (Brazil, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Bat Falcon is recorded against all the birds logged in Ostional Wildlife Refuge (21 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.
