Red-crowned woodpecker

Red-crowned woodpecker
female M. r. rubricapillus, Columbia
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Picidae
Genus:	Melanerpes
Species:	M. rubricapillus
Binomial name
Melanerpes rubricapillus (Cabanis, 1862)

The red-crowned woodpecker (Melanerpes rubricapillus) is a resident breeding bird from southwestern Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas and Tobago.

Description

The adult is 17 cm (6.7 in) long and weighs 55 g (1.9 oz). It has a zebra-barred black and white back and wings and a white rump. The tail is black with some white barring, and the underparts are pale buff-brown. The male has a red crown patch and nape. The female has a buff crown and duller nape. Immature birds are duller, particularly in the red areas of the head and neck.

Although this species is very similar in appearance to the golden-fronted woodpecker (Melanerpes aurifrons) and the Yucatan woodpecker (Melanerpes pygmaeus), its distribution does not overlap with either of these species.

Distribution and habitat

This woodpecker occurs in forests and semi-open woodland and cultivation. It nests in a hole in a dead tree or large cactus. The clutch is two eggs, incubated by both sexes, which fledge after 31–33 days.

Diet

Red-crowned woodpeckers feed on insects, but will take fruit, sap and visit nectar feeders.

This common and conspicuous species gives a rattling krrrrrl call and both sexes drum on territory.

Gallery

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  Male M. r. rubricapillus, Tobago

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  Female M. r. rubricapillus, Tobago

References

• Hilty, Steven L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5.
• ffrench, Richard; O'Neill, John Patton; Eckelberry, Don R. (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd ed.). Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2.

Further reading

• Skutch, Alexander F. (1969). "Red-crowned woodpecker" (PDF). Life Histories of Central American Birds III: Families Cotingidae, Pipridae, Formicariidae, Furnariidae, Dendrocolaptidae, and Picidae. Pacific Coast Avifauna, Number 35. Berkeley, California: Cooper Ornithological Society. pp. 461–478.

External links

• "Red-crowned woodpecker media". Internet Bird Collection.
• Red-crowned woodpecker Stamps from Venezuela at bird-stamps.org
• Red-crowned woodpecker photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
• Red-crowned woodpecker species account at Neotropical Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
• Interactive range map of Melanerpes rubricapillus at IUCN Red List maps
• Audio recordings of Red-crowned woodpecker on Xeno-canto.