Yellow-vented Woodpecker
Dryobates dignus
Fairly small woodpecker found in subtropical Andean forests from Colombia to Peru. Generally uncommon and inconspicuous as it feeds in the middle to upper levels of the trees, sometimes with a mixed-species flock. Look for bold face pattern: white eyebrow and mustache separated by dark cheek, and red crown (restricted to nape in female). Underparts pale yellow with bold dark barring. Not many similar species at the same elevation.
Identification
The yellow-vented woodpecker is 16 to 17 cm (6.3 to 6.7 in) long and weighs 35 to 46 g (1.2 to 1.6 oz). Males and females have the same plumage except on their heads. Adults of both sexes of the nominate subspecies have a mostly blackish olive face with white stripes behind and below the eye. Males are red from forehead to nape with black feather bases showing through. The female is entirely blackish there. Both sexes' mantle and back are yellow-green with a bronze tinge; their rump and uppertail coverts are barred with light and dark olive. Their flight feathers are brownish olive. Their tail is blackish with a yellow cast; the outer two pairs of feathers have pale bars. Their underparts are greenish white becoming yellow in the flanks and belly and with heavy olive-blackish bars from the throat to upper flanks. The iris is brown to red-brown, the medium-long beak blackish with a paler base, and the legs are dark olive-gray. Juveniles are generally duller than adults and have greener upperparts. Both sexes have some red tips on their crown feathers.<p>Subspecies baezae has a shorter beak than the nominate and its underparts' barring is blacker and extends further onto the flanks. Subspecies valdizani has a longer beak than the nominate and less well defined barring on the rump and uppertail coverts.
Taxonomy
The International Ornithological Committee and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World place the yellow-vented woodpecker in genus Veniliornis. However, starting in 2018, the American Ornithological Society and the Clements taxonomy moved all species of genus Veniliornis into genus Dryobates.<p>The above taxonomic systems recognize three subspecies, the nominate dignus (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1877), baezae (Chapman, 1923), and valdizani (Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1902).
- Scientific name
- Dryobates dignus
- Authority
- (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1877)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Picidae
- Genus
- Dryobates
Range and habitat
The nominate subspecies of yellow-vented woodpecker is found from Táchira in extreme southwestern Venezuela south through the Colombian Andes into the Pacific slope of northern Ecuador's Andes. Subspecies baezae is found on the eastern slope of the Andes in Ecuador. Subspecies valdizani is found on the eastern slope of the Andes in Peru. The species inhabits humid montane forest, in particular cloudforest, and is seldom found outside mature primary forest. In elevation it mostly ranges between 1,200 and 2,700 m (3,900 and 8,900 ft) but is found as low as 700 m (2,300 ft) in Peru.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The yellow-vented woodpecker is a year-round resident throughout its range. <p>The yellow-vented woodpecker forages from the forest's middle strata to the canopy. It is usually single or in pairs but occasionally joins mixed species foraging flocks. It often spends a long time at one spot, hammering on a tree trunk or branch. No details of its diet are known.<p>The yellow-vented woodpecker's breeding season appears to be between March and August, but nothing more is known about its breeding biology.<p>The yellow-vented woodpecker is not very vocal, but does make "a fast, rattled 'krrrrrrrrrrrrrrr'."
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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