Tinamus major
Silhouette: George Edward Lodge · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The great tinamou (Tinamus major) is a species of tinamou ground bird native to Central and South America. There are several subspecies, mostly differentiated by their coloration. The great tinamou was described and illustrated in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. Marcgrave used the name Macucagua. The French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon described and illustrated the great tinamou in 1778 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from specimens collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. He simplified Marcgrave's name to Magoua. When in 1788 the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae, he included the great tinamou and placed it with all the grouse like birds in the genus Tetrao. He coined the binomial name Tetrao major and cited the earlier authors. The great tinamou is now placed with four other species in the genus Tinamus that was introduced in 1783 by the French naturalist Johann Hermann. Hermann based his name on "Les Tinamous" used by Buffon. The word "Tinamú" in the Carib language of French Guiana was used for the tinamous.
All tinamous are from the... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 2 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | El Nispero Zoo | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 2 | Dallas World Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Zooparque Itatiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Great Tinamou sighting in Tortuguero National Park on a given day, based on 331 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 102nd most-seen of the 348 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.
June
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Great Tinamou in Tortuguero National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July–September and November–December, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Great Tinamou sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
21st of 42
Of the 42 parks where we can rate Great Tinamou sightings, Tortuguero National Park ranks 21st at about 10%. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 40%), Corcovado National Park (Costa Rica, about 40%) and Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (Belize, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Great Tinamou is recorded against all the birds logged in Tortuguero National Park (331 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.
