White-throated Woodpecker
Piculus leucolaemus
Medium-sized woodpecker with a bold, yellow stripe through its face. Inhabits lowland and foothill rainforest. Both sexes have olive-green back, scaled breast, and barred belly. Male has red crown and mustache stripe; female has red only on hindcrown. Similar to Yellow-throated Woodpecker, but a white throat and much less yellow on face. Compared to Golden-green Woodpecker, breast is scaled (not barred), and eye is dark. Forages at middle to upper levels of the forest, often with mixed-species flocks. Typical call is a hoarse scream.
Identification
The white-throated woodpecker is about 19 to 20 cm (7.5 to 7.9 in) long and weighs about 69 g (2.4 oz). Males and females have the same plumage except on their heads. Males are red from forehead to hindneck and very widely on the malar (cheek); the latter has a wide yellow stripe above it.The female has red only on the nape but is otherwise the same as the male. Adults of both sexes have the eponymous white chin and throat. Their upperparts are bronze-green. Their flight feathers are mostly dark brown with pale cinnamon-rufous on the inner webs. Their tail is blackish with greenish edges on the feathers. Their upper breast is yellowish green; the feathers have pale centers and dark tips. The rest of their underparts are white with olive barring. Their shortish beak is blackish to gray, their iris dark brown to red-brown, and the legs dark olive to blackish. Juveniles are greener than adults and males have red only from the rear crown to the hindneck.
Taxonomy
The white-throated woodpecker was originally described as Picus leucolaemus. Since its inclusion in Piculus it has at times been considered conspecific with the rufous-winged woodpecker (P. simplex), the stripe-cheeked woodpecker (P. callopterus), and the Lita woodpecker (P. litae); the four may form a superspecies. It and just the Lita woodpecker have also been treated as conspecific. The white-throated woodpecker is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Piculus leucolaemus
- Authority
- (Natterer & Malherbe, 1845)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Picidae
- Genus
- Piculus
Range and habitat
The white-throated woodpecker is found from far southwestern Colombia south on the east side of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andes to central Bolivia. Disjunct populations are also in west and central Amazonian Brazil. It inhabits mature humid terra firme forest and várzea forest. It is a bird of the lowlands and foothills, reaching elevations of 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Ecuador and 1,400 m (4,600 ft) in Peru.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
As far as is known, the white-throated woodpecker is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The white-throated woodpecker usually forages alone, sometimes in pairs, and also joins mixed species feeding flocks. It forages at the mid- to upper levels of the forest and typically feeds by probing and flaking off bark. Its diet is not known but is assumed to include adult and larval insects.<p>Nothing is known about the white-throated woodpecker's breeding biology.<p>The white-throated woodpecker's vocalization is a "hoarse/hissing 'sraa-sraa-sraa-" or drawn-out, hissing, lowered 'wheeeeee'."
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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