Loriotus luctuosus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The white-shouldered tanager (Loriotus luctuosus) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found from Honduras to Panama, on Trinidad, and in every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
The white-shouldered tanager was formally described in 1837 with the binomial Tachyphonus luctuosus. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that Tachyphonus was polyphyletic. In the subsequent reorganization the genus Loriotus was resurrected for the white-shouldered tanager and two other species. The genus had been introduced in 1821 by the Polish zoologist Feliks Paweł Jarocki.
The IOC, AviList, the Clements taxonomy, and the North and South American Classification Committees have adopted the new genus. However, in 2016 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) instead assigned the white-shouldered tanager and the other two species to the genus Islerothraupis and retains them there as of late 2025. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guayaquil | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White-shouldered Tanager sighting in Pico Bonito National Park on a given day, based on 34 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 170th most-seen of the 271 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May, July and October–November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-shouldered Tanager in Pico Bonito National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June, August–September and December–April, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-shouldered Tanager sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
17th of 31
Of the 31 parks where we can rate White-shouldered Tanager sightings, Pico Bonito National Park ranks 17th at under 5%. The best odds are in Soberanía National Park (Panama, about 40%), Parque Natural Metropolitano (Panama, about 30%) and Carara National Park (Costa Rica, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Thraupidae
The closest relatives of the White-shouldered Tanager that you can see in Pico Bonito National Park (family Thraupidae, Tanagers and Allies) are Green Honeycreeper (about 30%), Yellow-winged Tanager (about 30%) and Blue-gray Tanager (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-shouldered Tanager is recorded against all the birds logged in Pico Bonito National Park (34 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.
