Helmitheros vermivorum
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The worm-eating warbler (Helmitheros vermivorum) is a small New World warbler that breeds in the Eastern United States and migrates to southern Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America for the winter. It is the only species in the genus Helmitheros.
The worm-eating warbler was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the wagtails in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla vermivora. Gmelin based his account on the "worm-eater" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his Gleanings of Natural History. Edwards had received a specimen from the American naturalist William Bartram that had been collected in Pennsylvania. The worm-eating warbler is now placed in the genus Helmitheros that was introduced in 1819 by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek helmins meaning "worm", and -thēras meaning "hunter". The specific epithet vermivorum is from Latin vermis meaning "worm" and -vorus meaning "-eating". The species is monotypic:... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 3 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 8 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Carolina Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Worm-eating Warbler sighting in Rincón de la Vieja National Park on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 247th most-seen of the 341 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Worm-eating Warbler in Rincón de la Vieja National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January to November, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Worm-eating Warbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
19th of 38
Of the 38 parks where we can rate Worm-eating Warbler sightings, Rincón de la Vieja National Park ranks 19th at under 5%. The best odds are in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (Jamaica, about 20%), Tikal National Park (Guatemala, about 20%) and Biotopo Cerro Cahuí (Guatemala, about 10%).
Same family: Parulidae
The closest relatives of the Worm-eating Warbler that you can see in Rincón de la Vieja National Park (family Parulidae, New World Warblers) are Rufous-capped Warbler (about 50%), Yellow Warbler (about 30%) and Tennessee Warbler (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Worm-eating Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Rincón de la Vieja National Park (17 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.
