Olive-backed Woodpecker
Gecinulus rafflesii
Medium-sized crested woodpecker with an olive-brown body and a black-and-white-striped head and neck; quite dull and dark for a flameback. Crest is bright red in males and black in females. Inhabits lowland and hill forests, where it forages both at middle levels and close to the ground, both singly and in pairs. Generally fairly uncommon and local. Gives cacophonous descending calls, often with a rasping quality.
Identification
The olive-backed woodpecker has yellow-green upperparts and gray-olive underparts. The side of the head has two black and white stripes. The male has a large red crest, the female has a smaller black crest.
Taxonomy
The olive-backed woodpecker was described by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1830 from a specimen collected by Stamford Raffles. Vigors coined the binomial name Picus rafflesii, with the specific epithet chosen to honour the memory of Raffles. The type location is Sumatra. The species is now placed in the genus Dinopium that was introduced by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1814.<p>A large phylogenetic study of the woodpecker family Picidae published in 2017 found that the olive-backed woodpecker (Gecinulus rafflesii) is more closely related to the pale-headed woodpecker (Gecinulus grantia). It may, therefore, be more appropriately assigned to the genus Chloropicoides.<p>Two subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Gecinulus rafflesii
- Authority
- (Vigors, 1830)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Picidae
- Genus
- Gecinulus
Range and habitat
The olive-backed woodpecker has a wide range in Southeast Asia, occurring in Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Indonesia (on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra). Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland, mangrove and montane forests; the species avoids clearings and secondary forest.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
Gecinulus rafflesii is threatened by illegal deforestation due to the development of palm oil plantations and the deliberate targeting of primary forest wood. These practices of deforestation even continue in protected areas. The total population of this bird is unknown but it is thought to be uncommon. It is currently classified as Near threatened by the IUCN.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Whitehead's Trogon
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Breathtaking, thickset trogon found only in Borneo’s north-central mountains. Male is predominantly bright red, whereas the female is mostly tan-orange; both sexes have a broad silverish “apron”, orangish-brown back, dark face, and blue bill and skin around the eyes. Favors damp, well-shaded sections of montane forest, where individuals and pairs sit quietly at mid-levels. Gives a well-spaced series of squeaky hoots.
Junin Tapaculo
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Poorly known Peruvian endemic found only in high Andean cloud forest northeast of the city of Huancayo. It was described to science in 2013. Adult male is plain gray, lacking the rufous barring on the lower underparts shown by Rufous-vented Tapaculo and Trilling Tapaculo. Female plumage not yet known with certainty. Younger birds are heavily marked with bars or scales. Best identified by range and voice. Typical song is a lengthy series that starts out with simple notes and gradually transitions into sputtering bursts.
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