Buff-necked Woodpecker

Buff-necked Woodpecker

Meiglyptes tukki

Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic

LCNTNear ThreatenedVUENCR
Daily sighting probability <5% · Rare
at Kuala Lumpur

In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%

54 Verified sightings at Kuala Lumpur
1,082 In all 8 parks From 2019 to 2026
September Best month
🌅 Crepuscular When it's spotted

About the Buff-necked Woodpecker

The buff-necked woodpecker (Meiglyptes tukki) is a species of bird in the family Picidae. Meiglyptes tukki was first described by the French ornithologist René Primevère Lesson in 1839 as Picus tukki. It has four subspecies: Meiglyptes tukki tukki, Meiglyptes tukki percnerpes, Meiglyptes tukki batu, and Meiglyptes tukki pulonis.

Meiglyptes tukki is small and dark brown with pale wing barring and a dirty-cream stripe on the neck. It has a pointed bill which is curved along the culmen. It is slightly heavier than its close relative Meiglyptes tristis and has a significantly longer tail. M. tukki is distinguished from its closest relatives by the lack of a nuchal crest.

A 1978 survey of fourteen individuals recorded mean body mass of 53g and a mean wing length of 101mm. The mean bill length, width, and depth noted in the 1978 survey were 22.68mm, 8.66mm, and 7.98mm, respectively. M. tukki is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand.

It inhabits primary evergreen and semi-evergreen lowland forests and peat swamp forests. M. tukki primarily forages by surface gleaning and probing... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Drumming0:49

Malaysia · 2026

© Ding Li Yong · XC1153888 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Call1:16

Malaysia · 2023

© Joshua Chong · XC808244 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song0:16

Malaysia · 2015

© Marc Anderson · XC269850 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Way Kambas National Park 🇮🇩 Indonesia
~40%
2 Taman Negara National Park 🇲🇾 Malaysia
~20%
3 Danum Valley Conservation Area 🇲🇾 Malaysia
~20%
4 Sepilok 🇲🇾 Malaysia
~10%
5 Khao Luang National Park 🇹🇭 Thailand
~10%
6 Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary 🇲🇾 Malaysia
<5%
7 Gunung Leuser National Park 🇮🇩 Indonesia
<5%
8 Kinabalu Park 🇲🇾 Malaysia
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Kuala Lumpur 🇲🇾 Malaysia
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Buff-necked Woodpecker in Kuala Lumpur?

Rare

Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Buff-necked Woodpecker sighting in Kuala Lumpur on a given day, based on 54 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 122nd most-seen of the 228 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.

When is the best time to see a Buff-necked Woodpecker in Kuala Lumpur?

March, June and September

In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Buff-necked Woodpecker in Kuala Lumpur on a given day, against under 5% in April–May, July–August and October–February, the lowest months.

What time of day is best to see a Buff-necked Woodpecker?

Between 2 and 5 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Buff-necked Woodpecker sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.

Where else can you see a Buff-necked Woodpecker?

Only Kuala Lumpur, in our data

Kuala Lumpur is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Buff-necked Woodpecker sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.

Where does the Buff-necked Woodpecker sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Buff-necked Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Kuala Lumpur (54 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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