Aegithina tiphia
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The common iora (Aegithina tiphia) is a small passerine bird found across the tropical Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with populations showing plumage variations, some of which are designated as subspecies. A species found in scrub and forest, it is easily detected from its loud whistles and the bright colours. During the breeding season, males display by fluffing up their feathers and spiral in the air appearing like a green, black, yellow, and white ball.
In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the common iora in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The Green Indian Fly-Catcher". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen that had been sent from Bengal to the silk-pattern designer and naturalist Joseph Dandridge in London. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the common iora in the genus Motacilla. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Motacilla tiphia and cited Edwards' work. The common iora is now placed in the genus Aegithina that was introduced... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Savar | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | |
| 2 | Solapur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Yogyakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 4 | Jakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 5 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Bhopal | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Yangon | 🇲🇲 Myanmar | |
| 10 | Asansol | 🇮🇳 India |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Common Iora sighting in Sinharaja Forest Reserve on a given day, based on 439 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 51st most-seen of the 156 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and June
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Common Iora in Sinharaja Forest Reserve on a given day, against about 20% in July, October and December–February, the lowest months.
Between 2 and 5 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Iora sightings with a recorded time, and about half of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
19th of 40
Of the 40 parks where we can rate Common Iora sightings, Sinharaja Forest Reserve ranks 19th at about 30%. The best odds are in Bali Barat National Park (Indonesia, about 70%), Bako National Park (Malaysia, about 70%) and Yala National Park (Sri Lanka, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Common Iora that you can see in Sinharaja Forest Reserve (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Square-tailed Bulbul (about 80%), Yellow-Browed Bulbul (about 70%) and Orange-billed Babbler (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Iora is recorded against all the birds logged in Sinharaja Forest Reserve (439 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.
