Picchio fiammante maggiore

Identificazione

The greater flameback is a large woodpecker, at 33 cm in length. It is of typical woodpecker shape, and has an erect crest and a long neck. Coloration is highly variable between subspecies; it always has unmarked golden-yellow to dark brown back and wings. The rump is red and the tail is black. The underparts are white with dark markings (chevrons, stripes, or bands), or light brown. The head is whitish with a black pattern, or it is yellow, brown, or red. The straight-pointed bill is longer than the head, and the legs have four-toed zygodactyl feet (two toes pointing forward, two backward) and are lead-grey in color. The eyes' irises are whitish to yellow.<p>The adult male greater flameback always has a red crown. Females have a crown color varying between subspecies, such as black spotted with white, yellow, or brown with lighter dots. Young birds are like the females, but duller, with brown irises.<p>White-and-black-headed greater flameback subspecies resemble some of the three-toed Dinopium flamebacks, but are not particularly closely related. Unlike the black-rumped flameback (D. benghalense) and the common flameback (D. javanense), the greater flameback's dark moustache stripes are divided by white (making them inconspicuous at a distance); except in C. stricklandi, their hindneck is white (not black), and even in the Sri Lankan birds, the dark colour does not extend to between the shoulders as it does in Dinopium; consequently, when seen from behind, the black-and-white-headed greater flamebacks outside Sri Lanka show a white neck bordered with black on the sides, while the Dinopium species have a black neck and upper back, with thin, white borders to the neck. Those flamebacks are also smaller (though this is only reliable in direct comparison), have a bill that is shorter than the head, and dark irises.

Tassonomia

It has been suggested to split the greater flameback into the following species:

Nome scientifico

Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus

Autorità

(Tickell, 1833)

Ordine

Piciformi

Famiglia

Picidae

Genere

Chrysocolaptes

Areale e habitat

Migrazione

Resident species

Comportamento

This flameback is a species associated with a diversity of rather open forest habitat, such as found in the foothills of the Himalayas or in the Western Ghats; it also inhabits mangrove forest. It seems to be well-adapted to particular forest types, while the similar-looking common flameback (Dinopium javanense) is more of a generalist; thus, depending on what forests predominate in a region, C. lucidus may be more (e.g. in Thailand) or less common (e.g. in peninsular Malaysia) than D. javanense. In Malaysian mangrove forest, for example, the greater flameback has been found to prefer tall Avicennia alba for foraging, while the common flameback rather indiscriminately uses that species, as well as Bruguiera parviflora and Sonneratia alba.<p>Like other woodpeckers, the greater flameback uses its bill to dig out food from trees, and its zygodactyl feet and stiff tail to provide support against tree trunks. The long tongue can be darted forward to extract wood-boring arthropod prey; while mainly feeding on small invertebrates, greater flamebacks also drink nectar. They nest in tree holes, laying three or four white eggs.

Conservazione

Widely distributed and common in parts of its range, the greater flameback is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List.

Tendenza della popolazione

declining