Colaptes punctigula
Silhouette: FJDegrange · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The spot-breasted woodpecker or spot-breasted flicker (Colaptes punctigula) is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Panama and every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
The spot-breasted 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 Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored 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 punctigula in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. For many years, the spot-breasted woodpecker was placed in the genus Chrysoptilus, but it is now placed in the genus Colaptes that was introduced by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1825. The generic name is from the Ancient Greek kolaptēs... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 2 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 3 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 4 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Farallones de Cali National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 6 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 7 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cali | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 2 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 4 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 5 | Valencia | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Spot-breasted Woodpecker sighting in Yasuní National Park on a given day, based on 334 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 168th most-seen of the 533 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and August
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Spot-breasted Woodpecker in Yasuní National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April and December, the lowest months.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Spot-breasted 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.
Among the best
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Spot-breasted Woodpecker sightings, Yasuní National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Amacayacu National Natural Park (Colombia, about 10%) and Manu National Park (Peru, about 10%).
Same family: Picidae
The closest relatives of the Spot-breasted Woodpecker that you can see in Yasuní National Park (family Picidae, Woodpeckers) are Yellow-tufted Woodpecker (about 40%), Crimson-crested Woodpecker (about 40%) and Cream-colored Woodpecker (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Spot-breasted Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Yasuní National Park (334 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.
