Vireo pallens
Silhouette: Caleb Gordon · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The mangrove vireo (Vireo pallens) is a species of bird in the family Vireonidae, the vireos, greenlets, and shrike-babblers. It is found in Mexico and every Central American country except Panama. The mangrove vireo was formally described in 1863 by the English naturalist Osbert Salvin based on specimens collected at El Realejo in Nicaragua and at Puntarenas in Costa Rica. He coined the current binomial Vireo pallens. The specific epithet is from Latin meaning "pale-colored", "greenish" or "yellowish". El Realejo has been designated the type locality.
The mangrove vireo's taxonomy is unsettled. The IOC, AviList, and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World assign it these 10 subspecies: Some twentieth century authors treated the mangrove vireo as conspecific with the white-eyed vireo (V. griseus). Others have suggested that two or three species are represented within the mangrove vireo because of plumage and vocal differences between the "Pacific" and "Caribbean" groups of subspecies. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Celestún Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 2 | Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 3 | Tikal National Park | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 4 | Calakmul Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 5 | Carara National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 6 | Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 7 | Ostional Wildlife Refuge | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 8 | Palo Verde National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 9 | Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇧🇿 Belize | |
| 10 | Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 11 | Las Baulas Marine National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Mangrove Vireo sighting in Ostional Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 18 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 129th 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.
February and August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Mangrove Vireo in Ostional Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in March–July and September–January, the lowest months.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mangrove Vireo sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 11
Of the 11 parks where we can rate Mangrove Vireo sightings, Ostional Wildlife Refuge ranks 7th at under 5%. The best odds are in Celestún Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 60%), Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 20%) and Tikal National Park (Guatemala, about 20%).
Same genus: Vireo
The closest relatives of the Mangrove Vireo that you can see in Ostional Wildlife Refuge (genus Vireo, Vireos) are Yellow-green Vireo (about 20%) 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 Mangrove Vireo is recorded against all the birds logged in Ostional Wildlife Refuge (18 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.
