Yellow-fronted Woodpecker
Melanerpes flavifrons
Multicolored, gregarious medium-sized woodpecker. Note black wings, tail, and mask, yellow forehead and eyering, white rump, and red belly bordered with dark bars. Males have a red crown and neck, which is black in females. Found in moist forests, second growth and sometimes plantations. The call is a loud “kiki-kiki-kirikiki.”
Identification
This colourful woodpecker is about 18 cm (7 in) long. The sexes are similar apart from the male having a red crown and nape while this region in the female is bluish black. Both have a yellow fore-crown, yellow cheeks, chin and throat, and a broad black band running from the base of the beak, through the eye to the nape. The mantle and upper wings are mainly black, and the back and rump are white. The tail is black with some white barring on the outer feathers. The breast is grey or olive, the belly red and the flanks barred in black and white or black and buff. The iris is blue-black and the distinct orbital ring is yellowish or orange. The beak is black and the legs and feet olive-brown. The juvenile is similar to the adult but less glossy and rather browner, with less red on the belly and crown.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Melanerpes flavifrons
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1818)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Picidae
- Genus
- Melanerpes
Range and habitat
The yellow-fronted woodpecker is native to eastern South America. Its range includes eastern and southeastern Brazil, eastern Paraguay and northeastern Argentina, at altitudes from sea level to about 1,800 m (6,000 ft). It is a resident, non-migratory species and is found in sparsely forested areas, gallery forests, secondary forests, palm groves, orchards, gardens and parkland, especially places where isolated trees are left standing in an otherwise cleared area.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The species has a mixed diet consisting mainly of berries and fruits, but including seeds, insects and their larvae. Breeding takes place between January and May in most of the range. Nestlings have been observed being fed fruits, and both insects and fruits are sometimes cached for later use. This species is a cooperative breeder, with a number of birds nesting in close proximity and some acting as non-breeding helpers.
Conservation
- Population trend
- unknown
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Handsome and unique white-eye, endemic to the island of Yap, in Micronesia’s western Caroline Islands. Dark olive-brown in color, with a flashing bright white eye-ring and orange legs and feet. Inhabits a range of wooded habitats on Yap, from remaining native rainforest to mangroves and forest edge. Averages less common than the Plain White-eye with which it shares the island, and tends to forage in smaller groups, or in pairs. Gives a somewhat bulbul-like series of whistled notes: “wi’di-deer-di-deer.”
Amazonian Pygmy-Owl
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Chestnut-bellied Malkoha
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Large, rather ungainly cuckoo; clambers about in the middle and upper levels of lowland forests and edges as it forages. Glossy green above, gray below and on head, with neon-orange skin around the eye, chestnut-orange belly and undertail coverts, greenish-yellow bill, and white-tipped green tail. Black-bellied Malkoha similar but paler overall, with a dark belly, and Green-billed Malkoha even paler, with dark red facial skin bordered in white. Gives multiple hollow-sounding notes, reminiscent of knocks on wood.
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