Turdus iliacus
Silhouette: Sharon Wegner-Larsen · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The redwing (Turdus iliacus) is a bird in the thrush family, Turdidae, native to Europe and the Palearctic, slightly smaller than the related song thrush. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under its current scientific name.
The English name derives from the bird's red underwing. It is not closely related to the red-winged blackbird, a North American species sometimes nicknamed "redwing", which is an icterid, not a thrush. The binomial name derives from the Latin words turdus, "thrush", and ile "flank".
About 65 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs. Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the redwing is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Caribbean islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.
The redwing has two subspecies: Turdus iliacus iliacus, the nominate subspecies described by Linnaeus, which breeds in mainland Eurasia. Turdus... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vatnajokull National Park | 🇮🇸 Iceland | |
| 2 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 4 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 5 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 6 | Gauja National Park | 🇱🇻 Latvia | |
| 7 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 8 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 9 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 10 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 11 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 12 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 13 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 14 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 15 | Aigüestortes National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yekaterinburg | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 2 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Sincan | 🇹🇷 Turkey | |
| 5 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 6 | Budapest | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 7 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 8 | Leeds | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 9 | Nizhny Novgorod | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 10 | Ankara | 🇹🇷 Turkey |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Korkeasaari Zoo | 🇫🇮 Finland |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Redwing sighting in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park on a given day, based on 102 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 134th most-seen of the 202 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November to February
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Redwing in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March to October, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Redwing sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
11th of 15
Of the 15 parks where we can rate Redwing sightings, Sierra de Guadarrama National Park ranks 11th at under 5%. The best odds are in Vatnajokull National Park (Iceland, about 50%), Wadden Sea National Park (Germany, about 10%) and Sierra Nevada National Park (Spain, about 10%).
Same genus: Turdus
The closest relatives of the Redwing that you can see in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (genus Turdus, Typical Thrushes) are Eurasian Blackbird (about 60%), Mistle Thrush (about 20%) and Song Thrush (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Redwing is recorded against all the birds logged in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (102 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.
