Malacoptila fusca
Silhouette: Matt Wilkins (Photo by Len Blumin) · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The white-chested puffbird (Malacoptila fusca) is a species of bird in the family Bucconidae, the puffbirds, nunlets, and nunbirds. It is one of seven species in the genus Malacoptila. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
The white-chested puffbird was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other puffbirds in the genus Bucco and coined the binomial name Bucco fuscus. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "brown" or "dusky". Gmelin based his description on the "white-breasted barbet" that had been described in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham from a specimen that had been collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The white-chested puffbird is now one of seven species placed in the genus Malacoptila that was introduced by George Gray in 1841.
The white-chested puffbird and the semicollared puffbird (Malacoptila semicincta) were considered to be conspecific by James Peters in 1958 but they are now treated as a superspecies. The white-chested puffbird is generally... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 2 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White-chested Puffbird sighting in Yasuní National Park on a given day, based on 23 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 465th most-seen of the 533 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-chested Puffbird in Yasuní National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June to April, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-chested Puffbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 2 parks where we can rate White-chested Puffbird sightings, Yasuní National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Sierra de la Macarena National Park (Colombia, under 5%).
Same family: Bucconidae
The closest relatives of the White-chested Puffbird that you can see in Yasuní National Park (family Bucconidae, Puffbirds) are Black-fronted Nunbird (about 20%), Swallow-wing Puffbird (about 20%) and White-fronted Nunbird (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-chested Puffbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Yasuní National Park (23 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.
