Elaenia obscura
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The highland elaenia (Elaenia obscura) is a species of bird in subfamily Elaeniinae of family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. The highland elaenia is monotypic. What is now the small-headed elaenia (E. sordida) was previously treated as a subspecies of it; between 2016 and 2020 taxonomic systems split the two.
The highland elaenia is 16 to 19 cm (6.3 to 7.5 in) long and weighs about 14 to 24 g (0.49 to 0.85 oz). It is a large elaenia without a crest. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a dark grayish olive head with lighter cheeks, a dusky loral spot, and a thin whitish eyering. Their upperparts are dark grayish olive. Their wings are mostly dusky with pale edges on the flight feathers. The tips of their wing coverts are yellowish and show as two bars on the closed wing. Their tail is dusky with white tips on unworn feathers. Their chin and throat are pale yellow, their breast and flanks dull olive, and their belly and undertail coverts pale yellow. Both sexes have a dark brown iris, a stubby black bill with a pinkish base to the mandible, and black legs and feet. Juveniles... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Highland Elaenia sighting in Podocarpus National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 419th most-seen of the 446 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Highland Elaenia in Podocarpus National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Highland Elaenia sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Podocarpus National Park, in our data
Podocarpus National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Highland Elaenia sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Highland Elaenia is recorded against all the birds logged in Podocarpus National Park (6 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.
