Chestnut Woodpecker

Chestnut Woodpecker

Celeus elegans

Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Amacayacu National Natural Park

In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%

111 Verified sightings at Amacayacu National Natural Park From 2019 to 2026
769 In all 6 parks
February Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Chestnut Woodpecker

The chestnut woodpecker (Celeus elegans) a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found on Trinidad and in every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Some studies have found that subspecies citreopygius and jumanus are more closely related to the blond-crested woodpecker (C. flavescens) than to the other chestnut woodpecker subspecies. They have at times been treated as one or two separate species, and their exact placement is not fully resolved. Several more subspecies have been proposed as divisions of the six, but all have been determined to be either indistinguishable from one of the six, an aberrant form of one of them, or a hybrid.

The chestnut woodpecker is about 26 to 32 cm (10 to 13 in) long. Wikipedia →

Sounds

Drumming1:00

Bolivia · 2022

© Jacob Wijpkema · XC702108 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Call0:23

Colombia · 2022

© Mauricio Cuellar Ramirez (@Birding.travel) · XC695129 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Flight call0:06

Brazil · 2020

© Jerome Fischer · XC595875 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Brownsberg Nature Park 🇸🇷 Suriname
~20%
2 Amacayacu National Natural Park 🇨🇴 Colombia
~20%
3 Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve 🇪🇨 Ecuador
~10%
4 Yasuní National Park 🇪🇨 Ecuador
~10%
5 Tambopata National Reserve 🇵🇪 Peru
<5%
6 Manu National Park 🇵🇪 Peru
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Chestnut Woodpecker in Amacayacu National Natural Park?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut Woodpecker sighting in Amacayacu National Natural Park on a given day, based on 111 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 98th most-seen of the 436 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Chestnut Woodpecker in Amacayacu National Natural Park?

February

In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut Woodpecker in Amacayacu National Natural Park on a given day, against under 5% in June, the lowest month.

What time of day is best to see a Chestnut Woodpecker?

Between 7 and 10 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chestnut Woodpecker sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Amacayacu National Natural Park the best place to see a Chestnut Woodpecker?

Among the best

Of the 6 parks where we can rate Chestnut Woodpecker sightings, Amacayacu National Natural Park ranks 2nd at about 20%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 20%).

Which relatives of the Chestnut Woodpecker live in Amacayacu National Natural Park?

Same genus: Celeus

The closest relatives of the Chestnut Woodpecker that you can see in Amacayacu National Natural Park (genus Celeus, Neotropical Crested Woodpeckers) are Cream-colored Woodpecker (about 20%) and Waved Woodpecker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Chestnut Woodpecker sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Chestnut Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Amacayacu National Natural Park (111 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.

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