Hylophilus decurtatus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The lesser greenlet (Pachysylvia decurtata) is a small passerine bird in the family Vireonidae, the vireos, greenlets, and shrike-babblers. It is found in Mexico, every Central American country, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The lesser greenlet was originally described in 1838 as Sylvicola decurtata. It later was renamed Hylophilus decurtatus and later still moved to its present genus Pachysylvia and its specific epithet returned to decurtata to match the feminine gender of the genus.
The lesser greenlet's further taxonomy is unsettled. The IOC, AviList, and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World assign it these six subspecies: Subspecies P. d. minor was for a time treated as a separate species, the gray-headed greenlet, but regained its present subspecies status because... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 2 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 4 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Greenlet sighting in Soberanía National Park on a given day, based on 5,329 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 24th most-seen of the 449 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May–June and September–October
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Greenlet in Soberanía National Park on a given day, against about 30% in July, the lowest month. Those are among Soberanía National Park's wettest months, with about 310 mm of rain a month against 25 mm in February.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lesser Greenlet sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
8th of 44
Of the 44 parks where we can rate Lesser Greenlet sightings, Soberanía National Park ranks 8th at about 40%. The best odds are in Pico Bonito National Park (Honduras, about 60%), Tikal National Park (Guatemala, about 60%) and Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (Costa Rica, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Hylophilus
The closest relatives of the Lesser Greenlet that you can see in Soberanía National Park (genus Hylophilus, Scrub Greenlets) are Golden-fronted Greenlet (about 10%) and Scrub Greenlet (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Greenlet is recorded against all the birds logged in Soberanía National Park (5,329 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.
