Hirundinea ferruginea
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The cliff flycatcher (Hirundinea ferruginea) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is known in every mainland South American country except Chile and may occur there as well. The cliff flycatcher was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the todies in the genus Todus and coined the binomial name Todus ferrugineus. Gmelin based his description on the "ferruginous bellied tody" from Cayenne that had been described in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had access to a specimen in the Leverian Museum in London. The cliff flycatcher is the only species in the genus Hirundinea that was introduced in 1837 by the French naturalists Alcide d'Orbigny and Frédéric de Lafresnaye The genus name Hirundinea is Latin meaning "of swallows"; the specific epithet ferruginea is Latin meaning "rusty-colored" or "ferruginous".
The cliff flycatcher's further taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Congress, the South American Classification... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Itatiaia National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Serra dos Órgãos National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Chapada Diamantina National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Serra da Canastra National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 7 | Tijuca National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 10 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niterói | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Campinas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Cochabamba | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 5 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Santos | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Cordoba | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 9 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Cliff Flycatcher sighting in Sierra de la Macarena National Park on a given day, based on 38 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 222nd most-seen of the 418 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and May–June
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Cliff Flycatcher in Sierra de la Macarena National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–April and July–January, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cliff Flycatcher sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
9th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Cliff Flycatcher sightings, Sierra de la Macarena National Park ranks 9th at under 5%. The best odds are in Itatiaia National Park (Brazil, about 60%), Serra dos Órgãos National Park (Brazil, about 50%) and Chapada dos Guimarães National Park (Brazil, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Cliff Flycatcher that you can see in Sierra de la Macarena National Park (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Tropical Kingbird (about 60%), Great Kiskadee (about 30%) and Rusty-margined Flycatcher (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cliff Flycatcher is recorded against all the birds logged in Sierra de la Macarena National Park (38 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.
