Campethera scriptoricauda
Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The speckle-throated woodpecker (Campethera scriptoricauda), also known as Reichenow's woodpecker, is an East African woodpecker often considered a subspecies of Bennett's woodpecker. The bird is named after the German ornithologist Anton Reichenow.
It is greenish above with yellowish barring (giving a slightly yellower appearance than the similar Nubian woodpecker) and pale yellowish below with black speckles. The speckles continue forward through the throat, the main point of distinction from both the Nubian and Bennett's woodpeckers. The bill is pale, depicted as yellow or off-white.
Among its calls in Tanzania are "wi-wi-wi-wi-wi and a short churr." At least in Mozambique, it is probably vocally indistinguishable from Bennett's woodpecker. It lives in open woodland in Mozambique between Beira and the lower Zambezi river, in central and southeastern Malawi, and in eastern and central Tanzania north to Handeni as well as in the North Pare Mountains and around Mount Kilimanjaro. Formerly it was also found around Mombasa, Kenya. It inhabits open woodlands. At least in Mozambique, it prefers broad-leaved woodland with an understory... Wikipedia →
Call0:28
Tanzania · 2012
© David C. Moyer · XC96363 · CC BY-NC-ND 2.5
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Liwonde National Park | 🇲🇼 Malawi |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Speckle-throated Woodpecker sighting in Liwonde National Park on a given day, based on 46 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 107th most-seen of the 267 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.
November
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Speckle-throated Woodpecker in Liwonde National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August, the lowest month.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Speckle-throated Woodpecker sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Speckle-throated Woodpecker sightings, Liwonde National Park ranks 2nd at about 20%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Mikumi National Park (Tanzania, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Speckle-throated Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Liwonde National Park (46 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.
