Celeus elegans
Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The chestnut woodpecker (Celeus elegans) a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found on Trinidad and in every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Some studies have found that subspecies citreopygius and jumanus are more closely related to the blond-crested woodpecker (C. flavescens) than to the other chestnut woodpecker subspecies. They have at times been treated as one or two separate species, and their exact placement is not fully resolved. Several more subspecies have been proposed as divisions of the six, but all have been determined to be either indistinguishable from one of the six, an aberrant form of one of them, or a hybrid.
The chestnut woodpecker is about 26 to 32 cm (10 to 13 in) long. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname | |
| 2 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 4 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 5 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 6 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut Woodpecker sighting in Tambopata National Reserve on a given day, based on 116 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 302nd most-seen of the 550 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–February, May and September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut Woodpecker in Tambopata National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in March–April, June–August and October–December, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chestnut 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.
5th of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Chestnut Woodpecker sightings, Tambopata National Reserve ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 20%), Amacayacu National Natural Park (Colombia, about 20%) and Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Ecuador, about 10%).
Same genus: Celeus
The closest relatives of the Chestnut Woodpecker that you can see in Tambopata National Reserve (genus Celeus, Neotropical Crested Woodpeckers) are Cream-colored Woodpecker (about 10%) and Ringed Woodpecker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chestnut Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Tambopata National Reserve (116 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.
