Dryocopus martius
Silhouette: Walter Imp · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) is a large woodpecker that lives in mature forests across the northern Palearctic. It is the sole representative of its genus in that region, and its range is expanding. The black woodpecker is easily the largest woodpecker species in Europe as well as in the portion of Asia where it lives and is one of the largest species worldwide. This non-migratory species tends to make its home in old-growth forest or large forest stands and excavates a large tree hole to reside in. In turn, several species rely on black woodpeckers to secondarily reside in the holes made in trees by them. This woodpecker's diet consists mostly of carpenter ants. This species is closely related to, and fills the same ecological niche in Europe as, the pileated woodpecker of North America and the lineated woodpecker of South America, also being similar to the white-bellied woodpecker which is distributed to the south somewhat of the black woodpecker in Asia.
The black woodpecker was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Picus martius. Linnaeus gave the locality... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 2 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Triglav National Park | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | |
| 4 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 5 | Tatra National Park | 🇸🇰 Slovakia | |
| 6 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 7 | Plitvice Lakes National Park | 🇭🇷 Croatia | |
| 8 | Aigüestortes National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 9 | Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 10 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 11 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 12 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 13 | Hortobágy National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 14 | Mercantour National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 15 | Hohe Tauern National Park | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 16 | Gauja National Park | 🇱🇻 Latvia | |
| 17 | Vanoise National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 18 | Picos de Europa National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 19 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Novosibirsk | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 2 | Nizhny Novgorod | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 3 | Belgrade | 🇷🇸 Serbia | |
| 4 | Kyiv | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 5 | Vienna | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 6 | Prague | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 7 | Moscow | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 8 | Warsaw | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 9 | Sapporo | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 10 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alpenzoo Innsbruck | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 2 | Ogród Zoologiczny w Katowicach | 🇵🇱 Poland |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Woodpecker sighting in Gauja National Park on a given day, based on 41 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 67th most-seen of the 124 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April–July, September and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Woodpecker in Gauja National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August, October and December–March, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black 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.
16th of 19
Of the 19 parks where we can rate Black Woodpecker sightings, Gauja National Park ranks 16th at about 10%. The best odds are in Białowieża National Park (Poland, about 50%), Bavarian Forest National Park (Germany, about 20%) and Triglav National Park (Slovenia, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Picidae
The closest relatives of the Black Woodpecker that you can see in Gauja National Park (family Picidae, Woodpeckers) are Great Spotted Woodpecker (about 30%), Middle Spotted Woodpecker (about 10%) and Grey-headed Woodpecker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Gauja National Park (41 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.
