Coereba flaveola
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The bananaquit (Coereba flaveola) is a species of passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. Before the development of molecular genetics in the 21st century, its relationship to other species was uncertain, and it was placed with the buntings and New World sparrows in the family Emberizidae, with New World warblers in the family Parulidae, or its own monotypic family, Coerebidae. This small, active nectarivore is found in warmer parts of the Americas and is generally common.
Its name derives from its yellow color and the English word quit, which refers to small passerines of tropical America; cf. grassquit, orangequit. Carl Linnaeus formally described the bananaquit in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Certhia flaveola. He based his description on the "black and yellow bird" described by John Ray and Hans Sloane, and the "Black and Yellow Creeper" described and illustrated by George Edwards in 1751. The bananaquit was reclassified as the only member of the genus Coereba by Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1809. The genus name is of uncertain origin but may be from a Tupi name Güirá for a small black and yellow bird. The specific epithet flaveolus is... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niterói | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Salvador | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 4 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Porto Alegre | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Natal | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 10 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | California Academy of Sciences | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Bronx Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Woodland Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Bananaquit sighting in Tortuguero National Park on a given day, based on 136 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 157th most-seen of the 348 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, April and September–October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Bananaquit in Tortuguero National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–March, May–August and November–December, the lowest months.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bananaquit sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
51st of 62
Of the 62 parks where we can rate Bananaquit sightings, Tortuguero National Park ranks 51st at under 5%. The best odds are in Main Ridge Forest Reserve (Trinidad and Tobago, about 90%), Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (Jamaica, about 90%) and Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park (Mexico, about 80%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Thraupidae
The closest relatives of the Bananaquit that you can see in Tortuguero National Park (family Thraupidae, Tanagers and Allies) are Blue-gray Tanager (about 40%), Variable Seedeater (about 30%) and Palm Tanager (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Bananaquit is recorded against all the birds logged in Tortuguero National Park (136 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.
