Crimson-naped Woodpecker - BirdForum Opus

Painting © by PRATIM DAS

Dryobates cathpharius

Dendrocopos cathpharius

Identification

18cm

• Upperside black
• Wings mostly black with some white tips distally and a larger white patch proximally
• Tail black with white-and-black barring on outer tail feathers
• Crown and nape black in female, but rear crown and nape red in male
• Side of head white, limited below by black sub-auricular line which often extends onto breast
• Crimson breast patch
• Underparts pale to buff, streaked black
• Undertail coverts often reddish

Variation

The base color of the underpart (white vs buff), the contrast with reddish at breast and undertail coverts, etc. differ among subspecies.

Distribution

Asia: found from the Himalayas of Nepal and India to northern Myanmar.

Taxonomy

Necklaced Woodpecker and Crimson-naped Woodpecker were formerly considered one species under the name of Crimson-breasted Woodpecker (Scarlet-breasted Woodpecker).

Closely related to Darjeeling Woodpecker.

Subspecies

Clements recognizes these subspecies[1]:

• D. c. cathpharius:

• Eastern Himalayas (Nepal to northern Assam)

• D. c. ludlowi:

• South-eastern Tibet

• D. c. pyrrhothorax:

• Hills south of Brahmaputra River and adjacent northern Myanmar

An additional subspecies cruentipectus is generally considered included in pyrrhothorax^[3].

Habitat

Hill evergreen broadleaved forests above 1200 m asl.

Behaviour

Searches for food by hammering on smaller branches, often in dead trees. May sometimes take nectar.

References

1. Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
3. Avibase
4. Limparungpatthanakij , W. L. (2023). Crimson-naped Woodpecker (Dryobates cathpharius), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (N. D. Sly, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.crbwoo6.01
5. Arthur Grosset

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Crimson-naped Woodpecker. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 9 October 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Crimson-naped_Woodpecker

External Links

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