| Olive woodpecker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| D. g. subsp. persimilis | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Piciformes |
| Family: | Picidae |
| Genus: | Dendropicos |
| Species: | D. griseocephalus |
| Binomial name | |
| Dendropicos griseocephalus (Boddaert, 1783) | |
 | |
| Geographic distribution shown in green | |
| Synonyms | |
Chloropicus griseocephalus | |
The olive woodpecker (Dendropicos griseocephalus) is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae. [2]
The olive woodpecker was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen obtained from the Cape of Good Hope area of South Africa. [3] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. [4] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Picus griseocephalus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. [5] The olive woodpecker is now placed in the genus Dendropicos that was introduced by the French ornithologist Alfred Malherbe in 1849. [6] The generic name is from the Ancient Greek dendron meaning tree and pikos for woodpecker. The specific epithet griseocephalus combines the Medieval Latin griseus meaning "grey" and the Ancient Greek -kephalos meaning "-headed". [7]
Three subspecies are recognised: [8]
The Olive Woodpecker is mostly plain, and lacks many of the patterns typically observed in other woodpecker species. It is characterized by a bright scarlet rump and upper-tail coverts, better revealed in flight [9] . It has a grey face and throat, with a black forehead. The Olive Woodpecker's belly is dark grey and olive coloured, with lighter golden tones on the breast [9] . It displays a red or pink belly-patch which can vary in size. Its mantle is typically olive-coloured, with darker golden and bronze tones [9] . Wings are bronze with subtle white spotting and barring on flight feathers. The Olive Woodpecker's tail is black and lacks barring. Some tail feathers feature a green edge [9] . It's bill is characteristic of a woodpecker, with a grey upper mandible, and bluish lower mandible. The Olive Woodpecker has greyish legs [9] .
The Olive Woodpecker does exhibit sexual dimorphism. Males have a prominent red nape and mid-crown, whereas females' heads are fully grey [9] . Juveniles feature duller colours than adults. Their mantles are slightly greener than in adults, their breasts and bellies are greyer and lack the yellow hues found in adults [9] . Juvenile Olive Woodpeckers have little or no red on their belly, and their rump is a lighter red [9] .
The olive woodpecker is native to central, east and southern Africa, from the Ruwenzori Mountains to the Western Cape. It is found in Angola, Burundi, DRC, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The species occupies a range of wooded and forested habitats from 450–3,700 m (1,480–12,140 ft).
The Olive Woodpecker is known to give many different vocalizations. This woodpecker produces a short, nasally 3 to 4 note whistle "whee-whee-whee" [10] . It is also known to emit a mocking or quivering "yeh-yeh-yeh-yeh" [9] . Sometimes, the Olive Woodpecker can also produce a squeaky "tweet-tweet-tweet". Within groups, these woodpeckers conversate with "pep" or "pep-pep-pep" notes [10] . Alarm calls are typically a loud "tick", "queek" or "tweet" [9] followed by a "chi-r-r-r-re" sound [10] . On take-off, these birds commonly release a "tweet" sound, whereas in flight, they release a "wat-chew" sound [10] . Two conspecifics at a close distance communicate with quiet "kiwi-kiwi-kiwi" sounds [10] . Nestlings emit a high-pitched "kee-kee-kee-kee-kee" twitter [10] .
The Olive Woodpecker sometimes produces rapid but soft, drums, in 1-second rolls [9] [10] .
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