Banded Woodpecker
Chrysophlegma miniaceum
Small but brightly-colored woodpecker with a spiky crest. Slight variation across its range, but all birds have a dark orangish face, dark chestnut wings, black-and-white-striped underparts, and a dark tail. Female duller overall, with a plainer face. Inhabits lowland and foothill forests, edges, and gardens, where it can be reasonably common. Often seen singly, but can be encountered in closely-foraging pairs. Favors tall thick trunks. Gives sharp “kek” or “week” call notes. Difficult to confuse with any other small woodpecker.
Identification
The upper parts of the banded woodpecker are predominantly rufous-brown. The mantle is dull olive scaled with buff and the rump is yellow. The tail is chocolate-brown. The head is mostly rufous-brown with a shaggy yellowish nape. The chin, neck and throat are reddish-brown, the breast reddish barred with olive and the belly whitish, heavily barred with brownish-black. The sexes differ slightly; the male has a redder face and throat while the female's face and throat are browner, flecked with white. Both sexes have a dark beak, a chestnut eye with a bluish orbital ring, and greenish legs. Adult birds are about 26 cm (10 in) long.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Chrysophlegma miniaceum
- Authority
- (Pennant, 1769)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Picidae
- Genus
- Chrysophlegma
Range and habitat
The species is native to tropical southeastern Asia. Its range extends from southern Myanmar through the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo to Java. It is a sedentary, non-migratory species and is mainly found in the lowlands. Its main habitat is primary rainforest with vines, epiphytes, tangled shrubs and fallen trees, but it also inhabits secondary forest, plantations, coastal scrub, mangroves, parks, wooded suburbs and overgrown gardens.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The banded woodpecker feeds singly or in pairs, foraging unobtrusively among vines and dense cover as well as higher in the canopy, probing into crevices, moss and epiphytes. The main items of diet are ants, their eggs and larvae, as well as other small invertebrates.<p>Breeding takes place at different times of year in different parts of the range. In the Malay Peninsula, nesting activities have been seen in January, with nestlings being present between February and August.
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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