Nystalus maculatus
Silhouette: Matt Wilkins (Photo by Len Blumin) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The spot-backed puffbird (Nystalus maculatus) is a species of bird in the family Bucconidae, the puffbirds, nunlets, and nunbirds. It is found in South America from northeastern Brazil to northwestern Argentina. The spot-backed puffbird has sometimes been split into two species, the Caatinga puffbird and the Chaco puffbird.
The spot-backed puffbird was described in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. In his Latin text Marcgrave used the name Matuitui which was the local name for the bird in the Tupi language. A series of later ornithologists based their own descriptions on that by Marcgrave. These include Francis Willughby in 1678, John Ray in 1713, Mathurin Brisson in 1760, the Comte de Buffon in 1780, and John Latham in 1782.
When the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1788 he included the spot-backed puffbird and cited descriptions by earlier ornithologists. He placed it with the kingfishers in the genus Alcedo and coined the binomial name Alcedo maculata. The specific epithet is Latin and means "spotted" or "blotched". In 1807 the spot-backed... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | El Impenetrable National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Chapada Diamantina National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Cordoba | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Spot-backed Puffbird sighting in El Impenetrable National Park on a given day, based on 42 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 105th most-seen of the 219 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.
April and October
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Spot-backed Puffbird in El Impenetrable National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July and September, the lowest months. December has too few records to rate.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Spot-backed Puffbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Spot-backed Puffbird sightings, El Impenetrable National Park has the highest daily chance: about 20%. Next come Chapada dos Guimarães National Park (Brazil, about 10%) and Chapada Diamantina National Park (Brazil, under 5%).
Same order: Piciformes
The closest relatives of the Spot-backed Puffbird that you can see in El Impenetrable National Park (order Piciformes, Woodpeckers and Allies) are White-fronted Woodpecker (about 40%), Cream-backed Woodpecker (about 40%) and Checkered Woodpecker (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Spot-backed Puffbird is recorded against all the birds logged in El Impenetrable National Park (42 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.
