Speckle-throated Woodpecker
Campethera scriptoricauda
An attractive medium-sized woodpecker with an olive-green back and spotted pale underparts. Males have a red crown, nape, and moustache streak, while females have a black crown, a red nape, and a black-and-white moustache streak. Both sexes have a streaked black patch behind the eye. Found in savanna and woodland, including miombo. Very similar to Bennett’s Woodpecker, but there is little overlap in range; note Reichenow’s darker face. Females are further distinguished by their lack of brown cheek and throat patches. Fairly similar to Golden-tailed and Mombasa Woodpeckers, but distinguished by the spotted rather than striped breast. The vocalizations include burry nasal churring and whooping notes, often given by a group in chorus.
Identification
It is greenish above with yellowish barring (giving a slightly yellower appearance than the similar Nubian woodpecker) and pale yellowish below with black speckles. The speckles continue forward through the throat, the main point of distinction from both the Nubian and Bennett's woodpeckers. The bill is pale, depicted as yellow or off-white.<p>Among its calls in Tanzania are "wi-wi-wi-wi-wi and a short churr." At least in Mozambique, it is probably vocally indistinguishable from Bennett's woodpecker.
Taxonomy
This bird has been considered a subspecies of the Nubian woodpecker. On the other hand, some authorities lump it with Bennett's woodpecker, Zimmerman et al. because "it is said to intergrade freely with nominate bennettii in Malawi" Here it is considered a separate species following the Handbook of the Birds of the World and other authorities.
- Scientific name
- Campethera scriptoricauda
- Authority
- (Reichenow, 1896)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Picidae
- Genus
- Campethera
Range and habitat
It lives in open woodland in Mozambique between Beira and the lower Zambezi river, in central and southeastern Malawi, and in eastern and central Tanzania north to Handeni as well as in the North Pare Mountains and around Mount Kilimanjaro. Formerly it was also found around Mombasa, Kenya. It inhabits open woodlands. At least in Mozambique, it prefers broad-leaved woodland with an understory of tall grass, and it is probably rather common.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
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