Cinnamon Woodpecker
Celeus loricatus
One of several species of mostly rufous woodpeckers with a crest. On Cinnamon, look for pale off-white belly with black scaling, and uniformly rufous head and back. Sexes mostly similar; male has red mustache stripe. Mainly a forest bird, found singly or in pairs, usually at middle levels or in the canopy. Listen for series of loud breathy whistles descending in pitch, similar to several other species in this genus.
Identification
The cinnamon woodpecker is about 19 to 23 cm (7.5 to 9.1 in) long and weighs 74 to 83 g (2.6 to 2.9 oz). Males and females have the same plumage except on their faces. Both sexes' heads are rufous with a bushy crest and black streaks on the crown. Males have a red chin, throat, and malar with black streaks, and females are the same rufous there as on the rest of their head. Both sexes of adults of the nominate subspecies C. l. loricatus have dark rufous upperparts with narrow black bars. Their flight feathers are blackish with wide rufous bars. The top side of their tail is black with wide buff to whitish bars. Their upper breast is light rufous with black edges and tips to the feathers; the rest of their underparts are paler buff with bold black arrowhead-shaped marks. Their medium-long bill is grayish to yellowish, their iris red, and their legs gray. Juveniles are very similar to adults but with dusky mottling on the throat and irregular markings on their underparts.<p>Subspecies C. l. diversus is the largest. It has more red and less black on the throat and is a stronger cinnamon color than the nominate. It has narrow black bars above, more widely spaced markings below, and a yellower bill. C. l. mentalis is similar to diversus but paler and with less barring above and below. C. l. innotatus is even paler than mentalis with weak or no barring on the upperparts and plain or lightly spotted underparts.
Taxonomy
The cinnamon woodpecker has these four subspecies:
- Scientific name
- Celeus loricatus
- Authority
- (Reichenbach, 1854)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Picidae
- Genus
- Celeus
Range and habitat
The subspecies of cinnamon woodpecker are found thus:<p>The cinnamon woodpecker mostly inhabits the interior of humid to wet forest, and occurs only rarely in drier areas. It occasionally is found along the forest edge and in more open landscapes like treed pastures, secondary forest, and clearings. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 760 m (2,500 ft) in Costa Rica and Panama, to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Colombia, and to 800 m (2,600 ft) in Ecuador.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The cinnamon woodpecker is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The cinnamon woodpecker's primary food is ants and termites; it also eats fruit such as bananas. It usually forages singly or in pairs but does occasionally join mixed-species feeding flocks. In the forest interior it mostly forages near or in the canopy but hunts lower in more open areas. It usually pecks to get its prey but also gleans.<p>The cinnamon woodpecker's breeding season is March to May in Costa Rica and January to April in Colombia; it has not been defined elsewhere. Both sexes excavate the nest cavity, in a living or recently dead tree, and typically between 6 and 9 m (20 and 30 ft) above the ground. The clutch size, incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.<p>The cinnamon woodpecker's distinctive call is "a loud and far-carrying 'wheeét!-wheeét-wheet-it', sometimes with an introductory 'chuweeo'." Other vocalizations are a "sharp, descending rolling chatter when agitated", a "chikikikiít", "tititit-toò", and "chweé-titit". Its drumming is slow and short.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Red-billed Oxpecker
Buphagus erythroryncha
A bulbul-sized olive-brown bird that sports a diagnostic all-red bill and a red eye surrounded by a fleshy yellow wattle. The juvenile lacks the bright bill and eye coloration. Small groups occur in savanna and farmland, where they require large wild ungulates and domestic stock to forage on; they clamber agilely over host mammals, gleaning ticks, mites, and other ectoparasites, and occasionally drinking host blood. As they fly between large mammals, they give a distinctive “tsik-tsik” call. The similar Yellow-billed Oxpecker differs from Red-billed Oxpecker by having a yellow bill base and pale rump and lacking an eye-wattle.
Shelley's Sunbird
Cinnyris shelleyi
The breeding male has an iridescent green hood and rump, a red breast band, and black underparts. The underparts are grayish in non-breeding plumage. The female has streaking on the underparts. Found in miombo and other types of lush woodland, thick scrub, and gardens. The song is a typical sunbird fast jumble, and the most common call is a repeated “tyimp.” Breeding male similar to Marico and Purple-banded Sunbirds, but has a pure red rather than maroon breast band. Non-breeding male resembles Miombo Double-collared Sunbird, but has a green rather than blue rump.
Slaty Tanager
Creurgops dentatus
Large gray-and-red tanager of mid-elevation humid montane forest. Males are dark gray with a dark reddish orange crown; females are gray above and rusty orange below, with a white lower belly and eyebrow. Forages at mid-levels in dense forest, usually found accompanying mixed-species flocks.
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