Photo by rdavis
Bakubung Lodge, Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, November 2011
- Campethera abingoni
Identification
Length 19-22 cm, mass 61-76 cm. Has streaked, rather than spotted, underparts.
Adult male: The nape, the whole crown and the moustachial stripes are red.
Adult female: Crown and moustachial stripe black with white spots; nape red.
Distribution
Senegal, Gambia to South Sudan and South Africa.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
Campethera abingoni has six subspecies:[1]
- C. a. chrysura
- Senegambia to South Sudan, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and western Uganda
- C. a. kavirondensis
- C. a. suahelica
- Northern Tanzania to eastern Zimbabwe, Mozambique, north-eastern South Africa and northern eSwatini
- C. a. abingoni
- Western DRC to western Tanzania, north-eastern Namibia, north-western Zambia and northern South Africa
- C. a. anderssoni
- South-western Angola to Namibia, south-western Botswana and Northern Cape Province (of South Africa)
- C. a. constricta
- Southern eSwatini, extreme southern Mozambique and KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa)
Habitat
Woodland, thicket and coastal forest.
Behaviour
Usually in pairs; entirely arboreal. Eats ants, termites, millipedes and insect larvae.
Breeding
Monogamous and territorial. The nest hole is excavated in a tree trunk, usually between 0.4 m and 2 m above the ground. Two to four eggs are incubated for about 13 days by both sexes, and the nestling period is about 23 days. Parasitised by Scaly-throated Honeyguide, Greater Honeyguide and Lesser Honeyguide.
Diet
Their diet consists of insects and larva.
Vocalisation
The territorial call is a single, loud shriek wheeeeaa; similar to the sound of a nail being pulled from a plank.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Hockey, PAR, WRJ Dean, and PG Ryan, eds. 2005. Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa. 7th ed. Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. ISBN 978-0620340533
- Sinclair, I and P Ryan. 2003. Birds of Africa South of the Sahara. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691118154
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved May 2014)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Golden-tailed Woodpecker. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 27 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Golden-tailed_Woodpecker
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
