Spot-breasted Woodpecker / Vlekborstgrondspecht

Spot-breasted Woodpecker (Colaptes punctigula)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Foek Chin Joe	© Hans Majong	nest © Sheila Tjon Sie Kie
© Sheila Tjon Sie Kie	© Paul Begheijn	© Aernout Nieuwkerk
© Hans Majong	© Klaas de Jong	© Dominiek Plouvier
© Sheila Tjon Sie Kie	French Guiana © Pascal Dubois	French Guyane © Michel Giraud-Audine

Five photos of female Spot-breasted Woodpeckers, the first made by Foek Chin Joe at Paranam in Suriname in February 2007, the next three by Sheila Tjon Sie Kie in an old mango tree in Albina in November 2013 and the fifth one by Pascal Dubois in French Guyane. The male would have a red stripe under its eye.
This woodpecker is rather common in the coastal area, in the mangrove and other wooded places, climbing and drilling very conspiciously. They nest in holes in trees that they excavate themselves, as all woodpeckers do, I suppose.
Dominiek Plouvier made two videos of a Spot-breasted Woodpecker in Commewijne. Ashraf Tilburg also made a video of this woodpecker in his garden. The sound of this woodpecker can be heard on the video of the Black-crowned Tityra on this site.

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a Spot-breasted Woodpecker © ;	Video recording of a Spot-breasted Woodpecker © ;	Video recording of a Spot-breasted Woodpecker © ;

Distribution

Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least four observations on different days and the largest ones ten or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Not all places in Suriname have been equally often visited by birders, so the distribution of the squares gives an indication of the whereabouts of the birds, but also of the birders. Some places deep in the south have no reported bird observations, by experienced birders, within 60 kilometer.

Abundance in different areas
coastal zone (blue dots on the map) :
northern savannas (yellow dots (in the north)) :
rainforest under 400 m (red dots) :
rainforest above 400 m (red dots) :
Sipaliwini savanna (yellow dots (in the south)) :
A blank is shown if not convincingly reported in the zone. Data interpreted by Arie Spaans, Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot.

Names
Scientific name:	Colaptes punctigula
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Picidae, 19 in Suriname
Dutch:	Vlekborstgrondspecht
English:	Spot-breasted Woodpecker
Sranan ('Surinamese'):
Guyana:
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):
Portugese (Brazil):
Arowak:
Carib:
French:	Pic de Cayenne

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 128 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.	The 5 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest. Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences. The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Observations through the year

Observations of breeding through the year

The 128 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.

The 5 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest.

Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences.
The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Last update: September 2024 by Jan Hein Ribot. Please mail your comments, photos to: jhribot ( residing at ) gmail (point!) com.
observations can be uploaded to suriname.observation.org or ebird.org ).