Helmitheros vermivorum
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Worm-eating Warbler sighting in Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve on a given day, based on 116 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 150th most-seen of the 288 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and November–January
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Worm-eating Warbler in Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in February and April–October, 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.
10th of 38
Of the 38 parks where we can rate Worm-eating Warbler sightings, Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve ranks 10th at about 10%. 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 Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve (family Parulidae, New World Warblers) are American Redstart (about 40%), Yellow Warbler (about 40%) and Magnolia Warbler (about 40%), 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 Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve (116 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.
