Attila spadiceus
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The bright-rumped attila or polymorphic attila (Attila spadiceus) is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family (Tyrannidae). It breeds from northwestern Mexico to western Ecuador, Bolivia and southeastern Brazil, and on Trinidad.
The bright-rumped attila 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 flycatcher in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa spadicea. The specific epithet is from Latin spadiceus meaning "chestnut coloured" or "date-coloured". Gmelin based his description on the "yellow-rumped flycatcher" from Cayenne that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. The bright-rumped attila is now one of seven flycatchers placed in the genus Attila that was introduced in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson.
Twelve subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Manaus | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 4 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Bright-rumped Attila sighting in Volcán Barú National Park on a given day, based on 46 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 165th most-seen of the 296 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.
January and March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Bright-rumped Attila in Volcán Barú National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February and April–December, the lowest months. Those are among Volcán Barú National Park's driest months, with about 90 mm of rain a month against 460 mm in October.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bright-rumped Attila sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
48th of 57
Of the 57 parks where we can rate Bright-rumped Attila sightings, Volcán Barú National Park ranks 48th at under 5%. The best odds are in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (Belize, about 40%), Tikal National Park (Guatemala, about 30%) and Pico Bonito National Park (Honduras, about 30%).
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Bright-rumped Attila that you can see in Volcán Barú National Park (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Mountain Elaenia (about 50%), Tufted Flycatcher (about 40%) and Yellowish Flycatcher (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Bright-rumped Attila is recorded against all the birds logged in Volcán Barú National Park (46 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.
