Hymenops perspicillatus
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The spectacled tyrant (Hymenops perspicillatus) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and as a vagrant to Peru. The spectacled tyrant was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the wagtails in the genus Motacilla and coined the binomial name Motacilla perspicillata. Gmelin based his description on "Le clignot ou traquet à lunette" that had been described in 1778 by the French polymath the Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The spectacled tyrant is now the only species in genus Hymenops that was introduced in 1828 by the French naturalist René Lesson. The genus name is from Ancient Greek humēn meaning "skin" or "membrane" and ōps meaning "eye". The specific epithet perspicillatus is Modern Latin meaning "spectacled". Within the family Tyrannidae the spectacled tyrant is sister to the genus Knipolegus containing the black tyrants.
The spectacled tyrant has two subspecies, the nominate H. p. perspicillatus (Gmelin... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iberá National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Nahuel Huapi National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Torres del Paine National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile | |
| 4 | Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile | |
| 5 | El Palmar National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rosario | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Buenos Aires | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | Montevideo | 🇺🇾 Uruguay | |
| 5 | Cordoba | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 6 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 7 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Spectacled Tyrant sighting in Torres del Paine National Park on a given day, based on 133 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 58th most-seen of the 106 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May, August and October–February
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Spectacled Tyrant in Torres del Paine National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–April, June–July and September, the lowest months.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Spectacled Tyrant sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Spectacled Tyrant sightings, Torres del Paine National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Iberá National Park (Argentina, about 40%) and Nahuel Huapi National Park (Argentina, about 20%).
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Spectacled Tyrant that you can see in Torres del Paine National Park (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Austral Negrito (about 50%), White-crested Elaenia (about 50%) and Fire-eyed Diucon (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Spectacled Tyrant is recorded against all the birds logged in Torres del Paine National Park (133 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.
