Campethera maculosa
Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The little green woodpecker, or green-backed woodpecker (Campethera maculosa) is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is widely distributed in tropical Africa, living in forest edges, clearings, and forest-shrub mosaics. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as a least-concern species.
The little green woodpecker was formally described in 1826 as Picus maculosa from Senegal by the French zoologist Achille Valenciennes. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "spotted". The little green woodpecker is now one of ten species placed in the genus Campethera that was introduced in 1841 by the English zoologist George Robert Gray.
Five subspecies are recognised: C...
Call1:12
Guinea-Bissau · 2019
© Antonio Xeira · XC705268 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Drumming0:35
Ghana · 2021
© Brendan Sloan · XC689820 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Recording0:08
Gabon · 2021
© bureaubenjamin · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Kakum National Park | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 4 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 5 | Gorongosa National Park | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 6 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Akagera National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 8 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Little Green Woodpecker sighting in Kakum National Park on a given day, based on 28 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 187th most-seen of the 250 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, May, September and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Little Green Woodpecker in Kakum National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–April, June–August, October and December, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Little Green 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.
Among the best
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Little Green Woodpecker sightings, Kakum National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Mikumi National Park (Tanzania, about 10%) and Lake Mburo National Park (Uganda, about 10%).
Same family: Picidae
The closest relatives of the Little Green Woodpecker that you can see in Kakum National Park (family Picidae, Woodpeckers) are Fire-bellied Woodpecker (about 40%), Melancholy Woodpecker (about 20%) and Buff-Spotted Woodpecker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Little Green Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Kakum National Park (28 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.
