Melanerpes lewis
Silhouette: Richard Rich · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
Lewis's woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) is a large North American species of woodpecker which ornithologist Alexander Wilson named after Meriwether Lewis. Lewis was one of the explorers who surveyed the areas bought by the United States of America as part of the Louisiana Purchase and first described this species of bird.
Lewis's woodpecker was described and illustrated in 1811 by the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson in his American Ornithology; or, the Natural History of the Birds of the United States. Wilson based his description on some bird skins that had been collected on an expedition across the western portion of the United States led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1803–1806. Wilson coined the English name "Lewis's woodpecker" and the binomial name Picus torquatus. Unfortunately, the specific epithet was preoccupied by the ringed woodpecker, Celeus torquatus (Boddaert, 1783), so in 1849, the English zoologist George Robert Gray coined a new name, Picus lewis. The type locality is Montana. Lewis's woodpecker is now placed in the genus Melanerpes that was erected by the English ornithologist William Swainson in 1832. The species is monotypic: no subspecies... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zion National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Glacier National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Saguaro National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Guadalupe Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Yosemite National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Grand Canyon National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Grand Teton National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Yellowstone National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Rocky Mountain National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phoenix | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | Las Vegas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Mesa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lewis's Woodpecker sighting in Yellowstone National Park on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 190th most-seen of the 197 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lewis's Woodpecker in Yellowstone National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lewis's 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.
Among the best
Of the 11 parks where we can rate Lewis's Woodpecker sightings, Yellowstone National Park ranks 10th at under 5%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Zion National Park (United States, under 5%), Glacier National Park (United States, under 5%) and Saguaro National Park (United States, under 5%).
Same family: Picidae
The closest relatives of the Lewis's Woodpecker that you can see in Yellowstone National Park (family Picidae, Woodpeckers) are Northern Flicker (about 30%), Hairy Woodpecker (about 10%) and Williamson's Sapsucker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lewis's Woodpecker is recorded against all the birds logged in Yellowstone National Park (12 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.
