Mulleripicus fulvus
Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The ashy woodpecker (Mulleripicus fulvus) is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae. It is endemic to Sulawesi and surrounding islands in Indonesia. The second subspecies is named after the collector and scientist Alfred Russel Wallace.
Its natural habitats are tropical moist lowland forests and tropical moist montane forests. They prefer closed forest, but can be found in secondary forest and patches of forest in savannah. They are assumed to be non-migratory, and can be found from sea level to 2,000 m (6,600 ft).The species is not uncommon and is considered secure for now.
The ashy woodpecker is a large woodpecker, 40 cm (16 in) in length, though not as large as the related great slaty woodpecker which replaces it from Borneo westwards. The male has a red face to the mid-crown, and the back of the head and neck are grey. The throat, front of the neck and belly are buff-coloured, and the rest of the back and wings are grey-brown to dark slate grey. The long bill is black, and the iris of the eye yellow; the eye is surrounded by a grey eye-ring. The female is like the male but the head is entirely grey, faintly spotted except for the forehead. M. f. wallacei resembles the nominate subspecies, but the red on the face encompasses most of the head. It also has a slightly longer tail and wings, but a slightly shorter bill. The calls include laughing calls of hew-hew-hew-hew-hew and tuk tuk tuk, but these are muffled, not loud. They also drum during the breeding season.
Ashy woodpeckers predominantly feed on trees, but may also break into termite nests on the ground. In trees, they are often seen on trunks. They feed on termites, caterpillars and other insects and arthropods. Little is known about their nesting; one pair was observed digging a nest hole, with the male doing most of the work. Nesting holes are found in dead trees or in the dead sections of living trees. Two to three eggs are laid. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tangkoko Nature Reserve | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report an Ashy Woodpecker sighting in Tangkoko Nature Reserve on a given day, based on 562 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 8th most-seen of the 138 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report an Ashy Woodpecker in Tangkoko Nature Reserve on a given day, against about 40% in March, May and December–January, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Ashy Woodpecker sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Tangkoko Nature Reserve, in our data
Tangkoko Nature Reserve is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Ashy Woodpecker sightings: about 50% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Ashy Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Tangkoko Nature Reserve (562 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.
