Chrysocolaptes festivus
Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The white-naped woodpecker (Chrysocolaptes festivus) is woodpecker which is a widespread but a scarce breeder in the Indian subcontinent. It is associated with open forest and scrub with some trees. It nests in a tree hole, laying one or two white eggs.
The white-naped woodpecker was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Goa, on the southwest coast of India. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Picus festivus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The white-naped woodpecker is now placed in the genus Chrysocolaptes that was introduced by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1843. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek khrusos meaning "gold" and kolaptēs meaning "chiseller". The specific epithet festivus is... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 6 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 8 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 11 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-naped Woodpecker sighting in Royal Bardia National Park on a given day, based on 27 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 130th most-seen of the 233 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.
September
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a White-naped Woodpecker in Royal Bardia National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, June and October, the lowest months. That is one of Royal Bardia National Park's wettest months, with about 250 mm of rain against almost none in November. August has too few records to rate.
Between 4 and 7 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-naped Woodpecker sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
5th of 11
Of the 11 parks where we can rate White-naped Woodpecker sightings, Royal Bardia National Park ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kanha National Park (India, about 30%), Bandhavgarh National Park (India, about 20%) and Ranthambore National Park (India, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-naped Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Royal Bardia National Park (27 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.
