Dendropicos goertae
Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
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: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 2 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 7 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 9 | 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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an African Grey Woodpecker sighting in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, based on 130 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 169th most-seen of the 434 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–September and November–January
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an African Grey Woodpecker in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February and October, the lowest months.
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.
3rd of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate African Grey Woodpecker sightings, Queen Elizabeth National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 30%) and Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the African Grey Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Queen Elizabeth National Park (130 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.
