| Black-headed woodpecker | |
|---|---|
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| Female | |
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| Male | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Piciformes |
| Family: | Picidae |
| Genus: | Picus |
| Species: | P. erythropygius |
| Binomial name | |
| Picus erythropygius (Elliot, 1865) | |
The black-headed woodpecker (Picus erythropygius) is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It typically inhabits deciduous and coniferous forests and is found in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The black-headed woodpecker is a medium-sized bird at around 33cm tall and 100-135g. [2] Adult birds have very distinct plumage and have a black face, yellow throat, green wings, a red lower back, and a white stomach. [3] They also have white/yellow eyes and some individuals have a thin white line from their eye to their neck. [2] Males have a red crown, while females have a completely black crown with no red. [2] Juveniles are less pigmented than adults and juvenile males have fewer red crown feathers on their head. [2]
The black-headed woodpecker is a member of the woodpecker family Picidae and the genus Picus. They have been considered to be most closely related to the European green woodpecker (P. viridis) and the grey-headed woodpecker (P. canus). [4] However, recent studies have challenged this original phylogenetic relationship. [5]
There are two recognized subspecies of the black-headed woodpecker: [6]
Black-headed woodpeckers are found in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. [1] They are most commonly found in the mid-story and sub-canopy of deciduous and coniferous forests. [3] [8] They usually prefer dry dipterocarp forests, semi-evergreen forests, riverine forests, and savanna forests. [9] [8] [10] They are also resident birds. [2]
Black-headed woodpeckers, like most woodpeckers, are insectivorous and glean insects on the bark of trees. [11] They most commonly consume termites, but they also eat ants and other insects and invertebrates. [2] [11]
Their song is a loud series of yelps that sound similar to laughing. [3] These yelps ("ka-tek-a-tek-a-tek-a-tek" or "cha-cha-cha, cha-cha-cha") are rapidly repeated and the first note is emphasized. [2]
Little is known about their reproduction, but they reproduce between February-June and nest within trees. [2] They also have around 3-4 eggs. [2] In a wildlife sanctuary in Chiang Mai, their nests were occupied in May. [12]
Black-headed woodpeckers are usually found in groups with other bird species. [2] These bird waves consist of larger flock sizes, which allow birds to worry less about predators and spend more time foraging. [13] Black-headed woodpeckers are typically found in flocks with white-crested laughingthrushes (Garrulax leucolophus), lesser necklaced laughingthrushes (Garrulaxmonileger), and greater racket-tailed drongos (Dicrurus paradiseus). [9] [13] In these flocks, black-headed woodpeckers, along with the other birds, produce alarm calls when predators approach. [11]
The black-headed woodpecker is vulnerable to many parasites, including avian haemoproteid parasite, Haemoproteus bennetti, which has been detected in its blood. [14] They are also susceptible to Picidae-specific parasites, including chewing lice, Picicola roberti, and quill mites, Picobia heeri, which inhabit the feather quills. [15] [16]
The black-headed woodpecker is currently classified as least concern, but populations are decreasing. [1] This is mostly due to habitat destruction caused by human settlement and agricultural fields. [17]
In 2003, the black-headed woodpecker was declared a protected wildlife species by the Thai government. [18] The species is also found in many wildlife sanctuaries across Thailand. [19] [20]
The European green woodpecker is a large green woodpecker with a bright red crown and a black moustache. Males have a red centre to the moustache stripe which is absent in females. It is resident across much of Europe and the western Palearctic but in Spain and Portugal it is replaced by the similar Iberian green woodpecker.
Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. Most species live in forests or woodland habitats, although a few species are known that live in treeless areas, such as rocky hillsides and deserts, and the Gila woodpecker specialises in exploiting cacti.
The red-bellied woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker of the family Picidae. It breeds mainly in the eastern United States, ranging as far south as Florida and as far north as Canada. Though it has a vivid orange-red crown and nape it is not to be confused with the red-headed woodpecker, a separate species of woodpecker in the same genus with an entirely red head and neck that sports a solid black back and white belly. The red-bellied earns its name from the pale reddish blush of its lower underside.
The ashy-headed laughingthrush is a member of the family Leiothrichidae. The laughingthrushes are a large family of Old World passerine birds characterised by soft fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in southeast Asia.
The greater racket-tailed drongo is a medium-sized Asian bird which is distinctive in having elongated outer tail feathers with webbing restricted to the tips. They are placed along with other drongos in the family Dicruridae. They are conspicuous in the forest habitats often perching in the open and by attracting attention with a wide range of loud calls that include perfect imitations of many other birds. One hypothesis suggested is that these vocal imitations may help in the formation of mixed-species foraging flocks, a feature seen in forest bird communities where many insect feeders forage together. These drongos will sometimes steal insect prey caught or disturbed by other foragers in the flock and another idea is that vocal mimicry helps them in diverting the attention of smaller birds to aid their piracy. They are diurnal but are active well before dawn and late at dusk. Owing to their widespread distribution and distinctive regional variation, they have become iconic examples of speciation by isolation and genetic drift.
The grey-headed woodpecker, also known as the grey-faced woodpecker, is a Eurasian member of the woodpecker family, Picidae. Along with the more commonly found European green woodpecker and the Iberian green woodpecker, it is one of three closely related sister species found in Europe. Its distribution stretches across large parts of the central and Eastern Palaearctic, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
The white-crested laughingthrush is a member of the family Leiothrichidae. It is a highly social and vocal bird found in forest and scrub from the Himalayan foothills to Southeast Asia.
The rufous woodpecker is a medium-sized brown woodpecker native to South and Southeast Asia. It is short-billed, foraging in pairs on small insects, particularly ants and termites, in scrub, evergreen, and deciduous forests and is noted for building its nest within the carton nests of arboreal ants in the genus Crematogaster. It was for sometime placed in the otherwise Neotropical genus Celeus but this has been shown to be a case of evolutionary convergence and molecular phylogenetic studies support its placement in the monotypic genus Micropternus.
The rufous-necked laughingthrush is a bird species in the laughingthrush family, Leiothrichidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Nepal, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. Little study was done on this species due to its abundance and lack of interest in its conservation.
The olive-backed woodpecker is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae that is found in Southeast Asia.
The heart-spotted woodpecker is a species of bird in the woodpecker family. It has a contrasting black and white plumage, a distinctively stubby body and a large wedge-shaped head making it easy to identify while its frequent calling make it easy to detect as it forage for invertebrates under the bark of the slender outer branches of trees. They move about in pairs or small groups and are often found in mixed-species foraging flocks. They have a wide distribution across Asia with populations in the forests of southwestern and central India which are slightly separated from their ranges in the Himalayas and Southeast Asia.
The grey-and-buff woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Myanmar, and southern Thailand, but has become regionally extinct in Singapore. Its natural habitats are lowland and montane tropical or subtropical moist broadleaf forests.
The olivaceous piculet is a species of bird in the family Picidae. Etymologically, piculet is as a double diminutive of the Latin picus, woodpecker, see also Picus. In Greek, δρύοψ is woodpecker, which shares its roots with δρῦς, 'tree'; 'oak' and Druids.
The banded woodpecker or the banded red woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.
The scaly-bellied woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in the Indian subcontinent and adjoining regions, ranging across Afghanistan, Iran, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan.
The laced woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae.
Haemoproteus is a genus of alveolates that are parasitic in birds, reptiles and amphibians. Its name is derived from Greek: Haima, "blood", and Proteus, a sea god who had the power of assuming different shapes. The name Haemoproteus was first used in the description of Haemoproteus columbae in the blood of the pigeon Columba livia by Kruse in 1890. This was also the first description of this genus. Two other genera — Halteridium and Simondia — are now considered to be synonyms of Haemoproteus.
The Iberian green woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker endemic to the Iberian peninsula. It was formerly considered as a subspecies of the European green woodpecker but differs in having little black on the head and a dusky rather than a black ring around each eye.
Haemocystidium is a genus of parasitic alveolates belonging to the phylum Apicomplexia.
Haemoproteus homovelans is a parasite first found in the Grey-faced Woodpecker, Picus canus, in Bulgaria. Haemoproteus homovelans has circumnuclear gametocytes that lack volutin granules. The species is similar to Haemoproteus velans, yet the latter's gametocytes are overfilled with volutin.
