Golden-olive Woodpecker / Olijfrugspecht

Golden-olive Woodpecker (Colaptes rubiginosus)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Steven Wytema	© Steven Wytema	© Ricardo van Dijk
male © Erlan Sleur	female © Martin Reid

Photos of a female Golden-olive woodpecker made by Steven Wytema in the Brownsberg nature park in Suriname in the first half of 2005. At the same place saw Ricardo van Dijk his bird in February 2009 and Erlan Sleur his in June 2013.
The males of these woodpeckers have red in their crown. It is a common bird of rainforest above 400 meter, so you can often see it at the Brownsberg. It is also known from the Lelygebergte and the Nassaugebergte and the Tafelberg, all higher then 400 m.
Dominiek Plouvier made a video of a female Golden-olive Woodpecker searching for food.

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a Golden-olive 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 rubiginosus
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Picidae, 19 in Suriname
Dutch:	Olijfrugspecht
English:	Golden-olive Woodpecker
Sranan ('Surinamese'):
Guyana:
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Carpintero dorado verde
Portugese (Brazil):
Arowak:
Carib:
French:	Pic or-olive

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 143 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 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 143 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 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 ).