Veniliornis passerinus
Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
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 →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Iberá National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 5 | Serra da Canastra National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 8 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 10 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 11 | Chapada Diamantina National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 12 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | João Pessoa | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Recife | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 7 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 8 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Maceió | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Brasilia | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Little Woodpecker sighting in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas on a given day, based on 423 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 90th most-seen of the 308 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Little Woodpecker in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas on a given day, against about 10% in November, the lowest month. That is one of Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas's wettest months, with about 180 mm of rain against almost none in July. January to April have too few records to rate.
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.
Yes
Of the 12 parks where we can rate Little Woodpecker sightings, Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas has the highest daily chance: about 20%. Next come Chapada dos Guimarães National Park (Brazil, about 20%) and Iberá National Park (Argentina, about 20%).
Same family: Picidae
The closest relatives of the Little Woodpecker that you can see in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (family Picidae, Woodpeckers) are White-wedged Piculet (about 20%), White Woodpecker (about 20%) and Golden-green Woodpecker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Little Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (423 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.
