Passerina caerulea
Silhouette: Jonah Duckles · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The blue grosbeak (Passerina caerulea) is a medium-sized North American passerine bird in the cardinal family Cardinalidae. It is mainly migratory, wintering in Central America and breeding in northern Mexico and the southern United States. The male is blue with two brown wing bars. The female is mainly brown with scattered blue feathers on the upperparts and two brown wing bars.
The blue grosbeak was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia caerulea. The specific epithet caerulea is the Latin word for "blue", "azure-blue", "sky-blue" or "dark-blue". Linnaeus based his own description on the "blew gross-beak" described and illustrated by Mark Catesby in his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. The book had been published in 1729–1732. Catesby gave the location as Carolina and Linnaeus specified America. The type location is now restricted to South Carolina.
Some taxonomists placed the blue grosbeak in its own monotypic genus Guiraca but in 2001 a molecular phylogenetic study of mitochondrial DNA sequences found that the blue grosbeak, in spite... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Puebla | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 3 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 4 | León | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 5 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 6 | Guadalajara | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 7 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 8 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 10 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Zoological Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Xcaret | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 3 | Houston Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Zoológico Los Coyotes | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 5 | La Paz Waterfall Gardens | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 6 | Glen Echo Park Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blue Grosbeak sighting in Rocky Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 211th most-seen of the 223 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 Blue Grosbeak in Rocky Mountain National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue Grosbeak sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
45th of 46
Of the 46 parks where we can rate Blue Grosbeak sightings, Rocky Mountain National Park ranks 45th at under 5%. The best odds are in Badlands National Park (United States, about 30%), Guadalupe Mountains National Park (United States, about 20%) and Big Bend National Park (United States, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue Grosbeak is recorded against all the birds logged in Rocky Mountain 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.
