Spiza americana
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The dickcissel (Spiza americana) is a small seed-eating migratory bird in the family Cardinalidae. It breeds on the prairie grasslands of the Midwestern United States and winters in Central America, northern Colombia, and northern Venezuela. It is the only member of the genus Spiza, though some sources list another supposedly extinct species.
The dickcissel was formally described in 1789 by German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin under the binomial name Emberiza americana. Gmelin based his account on the "black-throated bunting" that the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant had described and illustrated in 1785 in his Arctic Zoology. The dickcissel is now the only species placed in the genus Spiza that was introduced in 1824 by French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The genus name Spiza is the Ancient Greek word for a common type of finch, now assumed to be a chaffinch. The species is monotypic; no subspecies are recognised.
The dickcissel is part of a group of the Cardinalidae that also includes Amaurospiza, Cyanocompsa, Cyanoloxia, and Passerina. Spiza is the only one among these that lacks blue structural colors in its plumage. Though the color pattern and habits... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Dallas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | San Antonio | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Maracaibo | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 9 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 10 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Dickcissel sighting in Tortuguero National Park on a given day, based on 16 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 300th most-seen of the 348 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Dickcissel in Tortuguero National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Dickcissel sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
21st of 30
Of the 30 parks where we can rate Dickcissel sightings, Tortuguero National Park ranks 21st at under 5%. The best odds are in Badlands National Park (United States, about 10%), Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (Costa Rica, about 10%) and Manuel Antonio National Park (Costa Rica, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dickcissel is recorded against all the birds logged in Tortuguero National Park (16 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.
