Black-cheeked woodpecker
Black-cheeked woodpecker | |
---|---|
Female in Costa Rica | |
Male in Costa Rica | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Piciformes |
Family: | Picidae |
Genus: | Melanerpes |
Species: | M. pucherani
|
Binomial name | |
Melanerpes pucherani (Malherbe, 1849)
| |
The black-cheeked woodpecker (Melanerpes pucherani) is a resident breeding bird from southeastern Mexico south to western Ecuador.
This woodpecker occurs in the higher levels of wet forests, semi-open woodland and old second growth. It nests in an unlined hole 6–30 m (20–98 ft) high in a dead tree. The clutch is two to four glossy white eggs, incubated by both sexes.
The binomial commemorates the French zoologist Jacques Pucheran.[2]
The black-cheeked woodpecker feeds on insects, but will take substantial quantities of fruit and nectar.[3]
This common and conspicuous species gives a rattling krrrrrl call and both sexes drum on territory.
Description[]
The adult is 18.5 cm (7.3 in) long and weighs 63 g (2.2 oz). It has black upperparts with white barring on the back, white spotting on the wings and a white rump. The tail is black with some white barring, and the underparts are pale buff-olive with a red central belly. There is a black patch through the eyes and on the cheeks, a yellow forehead, and a red nape. The crown is red in the male and black in the female. Young birds are duller, have less white above and less red on the belly.[3]
References[]
- ^ BirdLife International (2020). "Melanerpes pucherani". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T22680816A152197151. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22680816A152197151.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 323. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ a b Stiles, F. Gary; Skutch, Alexander F. (1989). A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. pp. 252–253. ISBN 978-0-8014-9600-4.
Further reading[]
- Skutch, Alexander F. (1969). "Blue-cheeked woodpecker" (PDF). Life Histories of Central American Birds III: Families Cotingidae, Pipridae, Formicariidae, Furnariidae, Dendrocolaptidae, and Picidae. Pacific Coast Avifauna, Number 35. Berkeley, California: Cooper Ornithological Society. pp. 518–521.
- IUCN Red List least concern species
- Melanerpes
- Birds of Mexico
- Birds of Belize
- Birds of Guatemala
- Birds of Honduras
- Birds of Nicaragua
- Birds of Costa Rica
- Birds of Panama
- Birds of Colombia
- Birds of Ecuador
- Birds described in 1849
- Taxa named by Alfred Malherbe