• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Golden-cheeked Woodpecker - BirdForum Opus

Photo by fishercl
Ixtapa, Mexico, January, 2010
Melanerpes chrysogenys

Identification

Black-and-white barred back, rump, with mostly pale grey underparts with yellow-tinged belly. It has a small black eye patch, a faint yellowish wash on ear patch, a red crown, and yellow forehead and nape.
The female is similar, but the crown is pale gray and black, not red.

Distribution

North America: found in Mexico, in the western, and south-western coastal strip, and the mountains of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 2 subspecies[1]:

  • M. c. chrysogenys:
  • Coastal lowlands of north-western Mexico (southern Sinaloa to Nayarit)
  • M. c. flavinuchus:
  • Western Mexico (Jalisco to se Puebla and e Oaxaca)

Habitat

Deciduous forests, gallery forests, tropical lowland evergreen forest, second-growth forests, woodlands, city edges and gardens.

Behaviour

Diet

They have a varied diet, consisting of insects, fruit and seeds.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved April 2014)
  3. BF Member observations

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.

Back
Top