Gray-headed Woodpecker
Picus canus
Distinctive medium-sized woodpecker with significant variation across its wide range. Always look for a gray face and thin black moustache stripe. Males have a red forehead patch, which females lack. Varies significantly across range: birds from northern Europe to northeastern Asia have pale gray heads and pale green wings; birds in the rest of mainland Asia average darker overall, with dark napes and crowns; Sumatran birds are dark rusty cinnamon overall. Favored habitats vary with range, including many wooded or semi-wooded habitats from lowlands up into the highlands. Most commonly heard calls a sharp, high-pitched “pik” and a descending series of whistled notes that speeds up, then slows.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Picus canus
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Picidae
- Genus
- Picus
Photos
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Andean Condor
Vultur gryphus
Huge, wide-ranging vulture of the Andes, but also ranges into lowlands in southern Chile and Tierra del Fuego. Locally fairly common in Chile and adjacent Argentina, less numerous northward. Mainly seen as singles or pairs, sailing high over ridges, but tens can gather at roosts and to scavenge at carcasses. Size alone is diagnostic, but can be difficult to judge at a distance: note very long “fingers” at wingtips and white collar of adult. Adult also has diagnostic big white panels on upperwing, visible as birds bank. Immatures dark overall, becoming like adult in about 5 years.
Ash-throated Casiornis
Casiornis fuscus
Large rufous flycatcher with a slight crest, a cinnamon back, dusky flight feathers, and buff underparts. Inhabits wooded caatinga (dry scrubby forest) in the breeding season, with migrants also found in Cerrado and Amazonian savannas and light woodland in the non-breeding season. The similar Rufous Casiornis has a rufous back, the same color as the wings.
Red-capped Parrot
Purpureicephalus spurius
Medium-sized, vividly colored parrot of eucalypt woodlands in southwestern Australia, where it uses the long bill to feed on eucalypt seeds, especially of Marri trees. Upperparts dark green, underparts purple, with red under the tail, red cap, and bright lime-green cheeks. Juvenile lacks red cap and is dully plumaged below. Calls includes scratchy chattering and squawking.
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