Melanerpes carolinus
Silhouette: Jason Dilworth · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) is a medium-sized woodpecker of the family Picidae. It breeds mainly in the eastern United States, ranging as far south as Florida and as far north as Canada. Though it has a vivid orange-red crown and nape it is not to be confused with the red-headed woodpecker, a separate species of woodpecker in the same genus with an entirely red head and neck that sports a solid black back and white belly. The red-bellied earns its name from the pale reddish tint on its lower underside.
The English naturalist Mark Catesby described and illustrated the red-bellied woodpecker in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands which was published between 1729 and 1732. Catesby used the English name "The Red-bellied Wood-pecker" and the Latin Picus ventre rubro. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he included the red-bellied woodpecker, coined the binomial name Picus carolinus and cited Catesby's book. Linnaeus specified the type locality as America septentrionali (North America). The locality is now restricted to South Carolina. The red-bellied... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Congaree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Big Cypress National Preserve | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Shenandoah National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Dallas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Red-bellied Woodpecker sighting in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 5,198 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 28th most-seen of the 279 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and September–October
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Red-bellied Woodpecker in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against about 30% in March and November, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-bellied Woodpecker sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Red-bellied Woodpecker sightings, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge ranks 6th at about 40%. The best odds are in Congaree National Park (United States, about 90%), Big Cypress National Preserve (United States, about 70%) and Point Pelee National Park (Canada, about 60%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-bellied Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (5,198 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.
