Colaptes rubiginosus
Silhouette: FJDegrange · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~60%
The golden-olive woodpecker (Colaptes rubiginosus) is a species of bird in the subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found from Mexico south and east through Panama, in every mainland South American country except Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
The golden-olive woodpecker was formally described in 1820 as Picus rubiginosis by the English zoologist William Swainson. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "rusty". Swainson specified the type locality as the "Spanish Main". In 1918 the Austrian ornithologist Carl Eduard Hellmayr restricted the location to Caracas, Venezuela. The golden-olive woodpecker is now one of 14 species placed in the genus Colaptes that was introduced in 1825 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors.
Nineteen subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guayaquil | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 3 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 4 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 5 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 6 | Cali | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 8 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Golden-olive Woodpecker sighting in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve on a given day, based on 38 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 108th most-seen of the 240 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and May
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Golden-olive Woodpecker in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve on a given day, against about 10% in January, March–April, June and September–November, the lowest months. Those are among Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve's driest months, with about 110 mm of rain a month against 370 mm in June.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Golden-olive 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.
12th of 35
Of the 35 parks where we can rate Golden-olive Woodpecker sightings, Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve ranks 12th at about 10%. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 50%), El Triunfo (Mexico, about 40%) and Main Ridge Forest Reserve (Trinidad and Tobago, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Picidae
The closest relatives of the Golden-olive Woodpecker that you can see in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (family Picidae, Woodpeckers) are Golden-fronted Woodpecker (about 50%), Lineated Woodpecker (about 30%) and Pale-billed Woodpecker (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Golden-olive Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (38 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.
