Tachyphonus rufus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The white-lined tanager (Tachyphonus rufus) is a medium-sized passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is a resident breeder from Costa Rica south to northern Argentina and on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.
The white-lined tanager was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from specimens collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The female bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Tangara rufa in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The white-lined tanager is now placed in the genus Tachyphonus and was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with the white-lined tanager as the type species. The name combines the Ancient Greek words takhus "fast" and phōneō "to speak". The specific rufus is Latin for "red", "ruddy... Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bioparque Wakatá | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 2 | Universeum | 🇸🇪 Sweden |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-lined Tanager sighting in San Lorenzo Protected Forest on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 183rd most-seen of the 249 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a White-lined Tanager in San Lorenzo Protected Forest on a given day, against under 5% in July, September–October and December–May, the lowest months. That is one of San Lorenzo Protected Forest's wettest months, with about 380 mm of rain against 65 mm in February.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-lined 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.
10th of 38
Of the 38 parks where we can rate White-lined Tanager sightings, San Lorenzo Protected Forest ranks 10th at about 10%. The best odds are in Farallones de Cali National Natural Park (Colombia, about 70%), Main Ridge Forest Reserve (Trinidad and Tobago, about 50%) and Chapada dos Guimarães National Park (Brazil, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Thraupidae
The closest relatives of the White-lined Tanager that you can see in San Lorenzo Protected Forest (family Thraupidae, Tanagers and Allies) are Blue-gray Tanager (about 40%), Palm Tanager (about 40%) and Crimson-backed Tanager (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-lined Tanager is recorded against all the birds logged in San Lorenzo Protected Forest (12 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.
