Leuconotopicus villosus
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The hairy woodpecker (Leuconotopicus villosus) is a medium-sized woodpecker that is found over a large area of North America. It is approximately 250 mm (9.8 in) in length with a 380 mm (15 in) wingspan. With an estimated population in 2020 of almost nine million individuals, the hairy woodpecker is listed by the IUCN as a species of least concern. The species was previously placed in the genus Dryobates.
The hairy woodpecker was described and illustrated with a hand-coloured plate by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands which was published between 1729 and 1732. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he included the downy woodpecker, coined the binomial name Picus villosus and cited Catesby's book. The specific epithet villosus is the Latin word for "hairy". Linnaeus specified the type locality as America septentrionali (North America), with specific mention of Raccoon, New Jersey. The hairy woodpecker was formerly usually placed in either Dendrocopos or Picoides but a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2015 found that these genera... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 10 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Hairy Woodpecker sighting in Elk Island National Park on a given day, based on 364 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 31st most-seen of the 161 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Hairy Woodpecker in Elk Island National Park on a given day, against about 30% in February, April–July and September, the lowest months. That is one of Elk Island National Park's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain against 110 mm in June.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Hairy 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.
8th of 51
Of the 51 parks where we can rate Hairy Woodpecker sightings, Elk Island National Park ranks 8th at about 30%. The best odds are in Kluane National Park (Canada, about 40%), Yosemite National Park (United States, about 40%) and Rocky Mountain National Park (United States, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Picidae
The closest relatives of the Hairy Woodpecker that you can see in Elk Island National Park (family Picidae, Woodpeckers) are Downy Woodpecker (about 30%), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (about 20%) and Pileated Woodpecker (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Hairy Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Elk Island National Park (364 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.
