Ochre-backed Woodpecker - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by renato.santos.4b
Mateiros, Tocantins, Brazil, 27 August 2021

Celeus ochraceus

Identification

Female Ochre-backed Woodpecker
Photo © by Francisco Paludo
Arajara Park, Barbalha, CE, Brazil, July 2017

27–30 cm (10½-11¾ in)
Male

• Black upperparts with narrow white or buff stripes
• Blond crest
• Red malar and cheek band
  

Female

• Streaked black and white
• Lacks red malar stripe

Similar Species

Differs from similar Blond-crested Woodpecker in that Ochre-backed Woodpecker is smaller, has darker head, and pale barring on upperparts much broader and more broken up into scaling and dotting.

Distribution

In South America, this species can be found in the lower Amazonian Brazil (south of the Amazon in Para); northeastern Brazil, from Maranhao south to northern Goías and east to Ceara, Pernambuco, and western Bahia

Taxonomy

This species is split from Blond-crested Woodpecker in accord with AOS-SACC (Proposals 742 and 793)

Subspecies

This species is monotypic^[1]:

Habitat

Humid forest, savanna and scrub.

Behaviour

Diet

Their main diet consists of ants and termites, with the addition of some fruit.

Breeding

They nest in tree holes, often utilising the nests of arboreal ants.

Vocalisations

Loud tsew tsew, wee-wee-week, also well-spaced series of wheep notes.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Arthur Grosset
3. Birdforum thread discussing taxonomy of Celeus woodpeckers
4. del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, and D. A. Christie (2020). Ochre-backed Woodpecker (Celeus ochraceus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.blcwoo5.01

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Ochre-backed Woodpecker. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 17 March 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Ochre-backed_Woodpecker

External Links

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