Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
Gecinulus rafflesii
In 3 days ~10%
The olive-backed woodpecker (Gecinulus rafflesii) is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae that is found in Southeast Asia. The olive-backed woodpecker was described by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1830 from a specimen collected by Stamford Raffles. Vigors coined the binomial name Picus rafflesii, with the specific epithet chosen to honour the memory of Raffles. The type location is Sumatra. The species was then placed in the genus Dinopium that was introduced by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1814.
A large phylogenetic study of the woodpecker family Picidae published in 2017 found that the olive-backed woodpecker (Gecinulus rafflesii) is more closely related to the pale-headed woodpecker (Gecinulus grantia). It may, therefore, be more appropriately assigned to the genus Chloropicoides.
Two subspecies are recognised: The side of the head has two black... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Way Kambas National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Taman Negara National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 3 | Sepilok | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 4 | Danum Valley Conservation Area | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 5 | Kinabalu Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 6 | Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 7 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Olive-Backed Woodpecker sighting in Sepilok on a given day, based on 58 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 161st most-seen of the 242 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Olive-Backed Woodpecker in Sepilok on a given day, against under 5% in August to May, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Olive-Backed 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 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Olive-Backed Woodpecker sightings, Sepilok ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Way Kambas National Park (Indonesia, about 10%) and Taman Negara National Park (Malaysia, under 5%).
Same family: Picidae
The closest relatives of the Olive-Backed Woodpecker that you can see in Sepilok (family Picidae, Woodpeckers) are White-bellied Woodpecker (about 30%), Banded Woodpecker (about 20%) and White-rumped Woodpecker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Olive-Backed Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Sepilok (58 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.
