Spot-breasted Woodpecker

Spot-breasted Woodpecker

Colaptes punctigula

Silhouette: FJDegrange · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Cali

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

340 Verified sightings at Cali
959 In all 7 parks From 2019 to 2026
November Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Spot-breasted Woodpecker

The spot-breasted woodpecker or spot-breasted flicker (Colaptes punctigula) is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Panama and every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

The spot-breasted woodpecker was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle, which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name, but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Picus punctigula in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. For many years, the spot-breasted woodpecker was placed in the genus Chrysoptilus, but it is now placed in the genus Colaptes that was introduced by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1825. The generic name is from the Ancient Greek kolaptēs... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:22

Brazil · 2024

© JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA · XC939938 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Drumming0:06

French Guiana · 2023

© Geoffrey Monchaux · XC781244 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Uncertain0:12

Colombia · 2021

© Luis Eduardo Vidal Salgado · XC668000 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Amacayacu National Natural Park 🇨🇴 Colombia
~10%
2 Manu National Park 🇵🇪 Peru
~10%
3 Yasuní National Park 🇪🇨 Ecuador
~10%
4 Anavilhanas National Park 🇧🇷 Brazil
~10%
5 Farallones de Cali National Natural Park 🇨🇴 Colombia
<5%
6 Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve 🇪🇨 Ecuador
<5%
7 Tambopata National Reserve 🇵🇪 Peru
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Cali 🇨🇴 Colombia
~20%
2 Barranquilla 🇨🇴 Colombia
~10%
3 Medellín 🇨🇴 Colombia
~10%
4 Caracas 🇻🇪 Venezuela
~10%
5 Valencia 🇻🇪 Venezuela
<5%
6 Panama City 🇵🇦 Panama
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Spot-breasted Woodpecker in Cali?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Spot-breasted Woodpecker sighting in Cali on a given day, based on 340 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 47th most-seen of the 226 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 Spot-breasted Woodpecker in Cali?

November

In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Spot-breasted Woodpecker in Cali on a given day, against about 10% in January and March–May, the lowest months. That is one of Cali's wettest months, with about 150 mm of rain against 40 mm in August.

What time of day is best to see a Spot-breasted Woodpecker?

Between 6 and 9 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Spot-breasted 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.

Is Cali the best place to see a Spot-breasted Woodpecker?

Yes

Of the 6 cities where we can rate Spot-breasted Woodpecker sightings, Cali has the highest daily chance: about 20%. Next come Barranquilla (Colombia, about 10%) and Medellín (Colombia, about 10%).

Where does the Spot-breasted Woodpecker sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Spot-breasted Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Cali (340 verified sightings), 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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