Pic de Lita

Identification

The Lita woodpecker is about 17 to 18 cm (6.7 to 7.1 in) long. 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 rest of the face is golden-yellow. The female has red only on the nape and malar but is otherwise the same as the male. Adults of both sexes have a dusky olive chin and throat that appear blackish at a distance. Their upperparts are olive-yellow to bronze-green with a slightly darker rump. Their flight feathers are mostly dark brown with olive on the outer webs, pale cinnamon-rufous on the inner webs, and black tips. Their tail is blackish with greenish edges on the feathers. Their underparts are whitish with black wedge-shaped bars. Their shortish beak is light bluish with a black tip, their iris dark brown, and the legs dark slate blue. Juveniles are duller and greener than adults, have red only on the nape, and have a streaked throat.

Taxonomie

The Lita woodpecker was originally described as Chloronerpes litae. 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 white-throated woodpecker (P. leucolaemus); the four may form a superspecies. It and just the white-throated woodpecker have also been treated as conspecific. The Lita woodpecker is monotypic.

Nom scientifique

Piculus litae

Autorité

(Rothschild, 1901)

Ordre

Piciformes

Famille

Picidés

Genre

Piculus

Répartition et habitat

The Lita woodpecker is found in Colombia in the middle Magdalena River Valley and the Pacific slope of the western Andes, and south into northwestern Ecuador to Pichincha Province. It inhabits the interior and edges of humid and wet primary forest and also secondary forest. In elevation it ranges from about sea level to 800 m (2,600 ft).

Migration

Resident species

Comportement

As far as is known, the Lita woodpecker is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The Lita woodpecker forages from the forest's middle levels to the sub-canopy, usually by itself and sometimes in pairs. Its diet has not been studied but is assumed to be adult and larval insects.<p>Almost nothing is known about the Lita woodpecker's breeding biology. Excavation of and attendance at apparent nest holes have been observed in July and August.<p>The Lita woodpecker makes "[h]issing 'shreeyr' or 'peessh'" calls that are very similar to those of other Piculus woodpeckers.

Conservation

Tendance de la population

declining