Dendropicos goertae
Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an African Grey Woodpecker sighting in Serengeti National Park on a given day, based on 86 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 273rd most-seen of the 469 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, March and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an African Grey Woodpecker in Serengeti National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, April–October and December, the lowest months. Those are among Serengeti National Park's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against 5 mm in July.
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.
7th of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate African Grey Woodpecker sightings, Serengeti National Park ranks 7th at under 5%. The best odds are in Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 30%), Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 20%) and Queen Elizabeth National Park (Uganda, about 10%).
Same genus: Dendropicos
The closest relatives of the African Grey Woodpecker that you can see in Serengeti National Park (genus Dendropicos) are Cardinal Woodpecker (about 10%) and Eastern Grey 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 Serengeti National Park (86 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.
