Dendrocoptes medius
Silhouette: Олена Гнезділова · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The middle spotted woodpecker (Dendrocoptes medius) is a mainly European woodpecker belonging to the genus Dendrocoptes. The middle spotted woodpecker was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Picus medius. The specific epithet is Latin for "intermediate". Linnaeus gave the locality as Europe, but this is now taken to be Sweden. For many years this woodpecker was usually placed in the genus Dendrocopos but a 2015 molecular phylogenetic study that compared nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences from pied woodpeckers found that Dendrocopos was polyphyletic. As part of the reorganisation to create monophyletic genera, the middle spotted woodpecker was one of three species that were placed in the resurrected genus Dendrocoptes. This genus had been described by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis and Ferdinand Heine in 1863 with the middle spotted woodpecker as the type species.
Four subspecies are recognised: Dendrocoptes medius medius (Linnaeus, 1758) – Europe to west Russia Dendrocoptes medius caucasicus Bianchi, 1905 – north Turkey through the Caucasus Dendrocoptes medius... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 2 | Plitvice Lakes National Park | 🇭🇷 Croatia | |
| 3 | Picos de Europa National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 4 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 5 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 6 | Gauja National Park | 🇱🇻 Latvia | |
| 7 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 8 | Tatra National Park | 🇸🇰 Slovakia | |
| 9 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 10 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Middle Spotted Woodpecker sighting in Bavarian Forest National Park on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 136th most-seen of the 170 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.
September
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Middle Spotted Woodpecker in Bavarian Forest National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October to August, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Middle Spotted Woodpecker sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
9th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Middle Spotted Woodpecker sightings, Bavarian Forest National Park ranks 9th at under 5%. The best odds are in Białowieża National Park (Poland, about 40%), Plitvice Lakes National Park (Croatia, about 20%) and Picos de Europa National Park (Spain, about 10%).
Same family: Picidae
The closest relatives of the Middle Spotted Woodpecker that you can see in Bavarian Forest National Park (family Picidae, Woodpeckers) are Great Spotted Woodpecker (about 50%), Black Woodpecker (about 20%) and Green Woodpecker (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Middle Spotted Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Bavarian Forest National Park (17 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.
