Little Woodpecker

Little Woodpecker

Veniliornis passerinus

Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~10% · With luck
at Recife

In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%

14 Verified sightings at Recife
1,917 In all 12 parks From 2019 to 2026
July Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Little Woodpecker

The little woodpecker (Veniliornis passerinus) is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in every mainland South American country except Chile, Suriname, and Uruguay. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the little woodpecker in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). He used the French name Le petit pic de S. Domingue and the Latin name Picus dominicensis minor. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the little woodpecker. Linnaeus included a terse description, coined the binomial name Picus passerinus and cited Brisson's work. Linnaeus mistakenly specified the type location as Dominica. This has been corrected to Cayenne in French Guiana. The specific name passerinus is from Latin and means "sparrow like".

The International... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:07

Brazil · 2026

© JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA · XC1162218 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song0:05

Brazil · 2026

© Robson Silva e Silva · XC1084287 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Canto0:10

Brazil · 2017

© Caio Brito · XC428137 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas 🇧🇷 Brazil
~20%
2 Chapada dos Guimarães National Park 🇧🇷 Brazil
~20%
3 Iberá National Park 🇦🇷 Argentina
~20%
4 Manu National Park 🇵🇪 Peru
~10%
5 Serra da Canastra National Park 🇧🇷 Brazil
~10%
6 Amacayacu National Natural Park 🇨🇴 Colombia
~10%
7 Yasuní National Park 🇪🇨 Ecuador
~10%
8 Emas National Park 🇧🇷 Brazil
~10%
9 Tambopata National Reserve 🇵🇪 Peru
<5%
10 Sierra de la Macarena National Park 🇨🇴 Colombia
<5%
11 Chapada Diamantina National Park 🇧🇷 Brazil
<5%
12 Podocarpus National Park 🇪🇨 Ecuador
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Fortaleza 🇧🇷 Brazil
~20%
2 João Pessoa 🇧🇷 Brazil
~20%
3 Goiânia 🇧🇷 Brazil
~10%
4 Campo Grande 🇧🇷 Brazil
~10%
5 Recife 🇧🇷 Brazil
~10%
6 Santa Cruz de la Sierra 🇧🇴 Bolivia
~10%
7 Asuncion 🇵🇾 Paraguay
<5%
8 Belo Horizonte 🇧🇷 Brazil
<5%
9 Maceió 🇧🇷 Brazil
<5%
10 Brasilia 🇧🇷 Brazil
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Little Woodpecker in Recife?

With luck

About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Little Woodpecker sighting in Recife on a given day, based on 14 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 58th most-seen of the 90 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Little Woodpecker in Recife?

July and October

In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Little Woodpecker in Recife on a given day, against under 5% in March and November, the lowest months.

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

Between 8 and 11 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Little 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 Recife the best place to see a Little Woodpecker?

5th of 11

Of the 11 cities where we can rate Little Woodpecker sightings, Recife ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Fortaleza (Brazil, about 20%), João Pessoa (Brazil, about 20%) and Goiânia (Brazil, about 10%).

Where does the Little Woodpecker sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Little Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Recife (14 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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