Melanerpes cruentatus
Silhouette: Jason Dilworth · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The yellow-tufted woodpecker (Melanerpes cruentatus) is a species of woodpecker. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and heavily degraded former forest.
The yellow-tufted 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-coloured 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 cruentatus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The yellow-tufted woodpecker is now placed in the genus Melanerpes that was introduced by the English ornithologist William Swainson in 1832. The species is monotypic. The generic name combines the Ancient Greek melas meaning "black" with herpēs... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 4 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 5 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 6 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 10 | Chingaza National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 11 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dallas World Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-tufted Woodpecker sighting in Yasuní National Park on a given day, based on 1,397 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 18th most-seen of the 533 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February, April–May, August and October
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-tufted Woodpecker in Yasuní National Park on a given day, against about 30% in September, the lowest month.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-tufted 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.
Yes
Of the 11 parks where we can rate Yellow-tufted Woodpecker sightings, Yasuní National Park has the highest daily chance: about 40%. Next come Sierra de la Macarena National Park (Colombia, about 40%) and Manu National Park (Peru, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Picidae
The closest relatives of the Yellow-tufted Woodpecker that you can see in Yasuní National Park (family Picidae, Woodpeckers) are Crimson-crested Woodpecker (about 40%), Cream-colored Woodpecker (about 20%) and Lineated Woodpecker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-tufted Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Yasuní National Park (1,397 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.
