Aramus guarauna
Silhouette: lwolfartist (photograph), T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The limpkin (Aramus guarauna) is a large wading bird related to rails and cranes, and the only extant species in the family Aramidae. It is found mostly in wetlands in warm parts of the Americas, from Florida to northern Argentina, but individuals have been reported as far north as Wisconsin, and Southern Ontario. It feeds on molluscs, with the diet dominated by apple snails of the genus Pomacea. Its name derives from its seeming limp when it walks. It has also been called "carrao", "courlan", and "crying bird".
The limpkin is placed in the family Aramidae, which is in turn placed within the crane and rail order Gruiformes. The limpkin had been suggested to be close to the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae, based upon shared bird lice. The Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy of birds, based upon DNA–DNA hybridization, suggested that the limpkin's closest relatives were the Heliornithidae finfoots, and Sibley and Monroe even placed the species in that family in 1990. More recent studies have found little support for this relationship. More recent DNA studies have confirmed a close relationship with particularly the cranes, with the limpkin remaining as... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 2 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Buenos Aires | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 7 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Salvador | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Campinas | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amazon Rescue Center | 🇵🇪 Peru |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Limpkin sighting in Palo Verde National Park on a given day, based on 907 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 19th most-seen of the 274 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and February
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Limpkin in Palo Verde National Park on a given day, against about 30% in June and November, the lowest months. Those are among Palo Verde National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 480 mm in October.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Limpkin sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 39 parks where we can rate Limpkin sightings, Palo Verde National Park has the highest daily chance: about 50%. Next come Los Haitises National Park (Dominican Republic, about 50%) and Lago de Yojoa (Honduras, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Gruiformes
The closest relatives of the Limpkin that you can see in Palo Verde National Park (order Gruiformes, Cranes, Rails, and Allies) are American Purple Gallinule (about 40%), Common Moorhen (about 10%) and Sora (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Limpkin is recorded against all the birds logged in Palo Verde National Park (907 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.
