Red-crowned woodpecker

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

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

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.

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.[2]

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

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

  • Male M. r. rubricapillus, Tobago
  • Female M. r. rubricapillus, Tobago

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Melanerpes rubricapillus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Stiles, F. Gary; Skutch, Alexander F. (1989). A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. pp. 253–254. ISBN 978-0-8014-9600-4.
  • 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.
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