Dendropicos goertae
Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The African grey woodpecker (Dendropicos goertae) is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae. Is a widespread and frequently common resident breeder in much of Sub-Saharan and equatorial Africa. It is a species associated with forest and bush which nests in a tree hole, often in an oil palm, laying two to four eggs. It is a common bird with a very wide range, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".
The African grey woodpecker was described by the German zoologist Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller in 1776 from a specimen collected in Senegal. He coined the binomial name Picus goertae. The specific epithet is from the French polymath Comte de Buffon who noted that "Goërtan" was the name used for the species in Senegal. The species was also illustrated in a set of plates that accompanied Brisson's work. The African grey woodpecker is now placed in the genus Dendropicos that was introduced by the French ornithologist Alfred Malherbe in 1849.
Five subspecies are recognised:
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mole National Park | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 2 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 3 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 5 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 7 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 9 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 10 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 11 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 2 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 3 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 4 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 5 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 6 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 7 | Freetown | 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone | |
| 8 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 9 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 10 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report an African Grey Woodpecker sighting in Mole National Park on a given day, based on 154 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 49th most-seen of the 266 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.
February
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report an African Grey Woodpecker in Mole National Park on a given day, against about 20% in September and October, the lowest months. That is one of Mole National Park's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain against 220 mm in August. July has too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most African Grey 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 11 parks where we can rate African Grey Woodpecker sightings, Mole National Park has the highest daily chance: about 40%. Next come Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 30%) and Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 20%).
Same genus: Dendropicos
The closest relatives of the African Grey Woodpecker that you can see in Mole National Park (genus Dendropicos) are Brown-backed Woodpecker (about 10%) and Cardinal Woodpecker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the African Grey Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Mole National Park (154 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.
