Tersina viridis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The swallow tanager (Tersina viridis) is a species of Neotropic bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It occurs regularly in Panama, on Trinidad, and in every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay. It has occurred as a vagrant in those two countries and on Tobago and Bonaire and there are unconfirmed reports from Curaçao.
The swallow tanager was formally described in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger with the binomial Hirundo viridis, mistakenly classifying it as a swallow. The type locality is eastern Brazil. The species is now the only member of the genus Tersina that was introduced in 1819 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The genus name is from the French Tersine, an unidentified bird described by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. The specific epithet viridis is the Latin for "green". Some mid-twentieth century authors placed the genus in its own family, Tersinidae. A molecular phylogenetic study of the tanager family published in 2014 found that the swallow tanager is a Thraupidae tanager and is sister to the honeycreepers in the genus Cyanerpes.
The swallow tanager... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Serra da Canastra National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Itatiaia National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Henri Pittier National Park | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Iguaçu National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Iguazú National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 8 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 9 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 10 | Serra dos Órgãos National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 11 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 12 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 13 | Tijuca National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 14 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 15 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 16 | Farallones de Cali National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 17 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 18 | Tayrona National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 19 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Brasilia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Campinas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Santos | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | San Diego Zoo Safari Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Berlin Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Houston Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Aquarium Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Swallow Tanager sighting in Tijuca National Park on a given day, based on 89 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 113th most-seen of the 214 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.
April
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Swallow Tanager in Tijuca National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May to March, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Swallow Tanager sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 19
Of the 19 parks where we can rate Swallow Tanager sightings, Tijuca National Park ranks 13th at under 5%. The best odds are in Chapada dos Guimarães National Park (Brazil, about 50%), Sierra de la Macarena National Park (Colombia, about 40%) and Serra da Canastra National Park (Brazil, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Thraupidae
The closest relatives of the Swallow Tanager that you can see in Tijuca National Park (family Thraupidae, Tanagers and Allies) are Palm Tanager (about 80%), Bananaquit (about 80%) and Sayaca Tanager (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Swallow Tanager is recorded against all the birds logged in Tijuca National Park (89 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.
