Celeus undatus
Silhouette: Pepe Reigada · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The waved woodpecker (Celeus undatus) or variable woodpecker is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
The English naturalist George Edwards described and illustrated the waved woodpecker in his Gleanings of Natural History which he published in 1764. Edwards used the English name "Red-cheeked Wood-pecker". When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he included the waved woodpecker, coined the binomial name Picus undatus, and cited Edwards's book. Linnaeus specified the type locality as Surinam [sic]. The waved woodpecker is now placed in the genus Celeus that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1831.
The waved woodpecker has a complicated taxonomic history. For much of the past it was assigned three subspecies. A 2011 publication suggested that the four subspecies of the scaly-breasted woodpecker (then C. grammicus) properly belonged as subspecies of the waved woodpecker, and a 2018 publication provided further evidence. In 2019 BirdLife... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname | |
| 2 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 4 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 6 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 7 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Waved Woodpecker sighting in Yasuní National Park on a given day, based on 282 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 178th 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.
October
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Waved Woodpecker in Yasuní National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April and July, the lowest months.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Waved 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 Waved Woodpecker sightings, Yasuní National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 30%) and Amacayacu National Natural Park (Colombia, about 10%).
Same genus: Celeus
The closest relatives of the Waved Woodpecker that you can see in Yasuní National Park (genus Celeus, Neotropical Crested Woodpeckers) are Cream-colored Woodpecker (about 20%), Chestnut 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 Waved Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Yasuní National Park (282 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.
