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Golden-naped Woodpecker | Melanerpes chrysauchen
Goudnekspecht | Carpintero nuquidorado | Pica-pau-de-nuca-dourada
The Golden-naped Woodpecker is a small, boldly patterned Melanerpes woodpecker with a golden-yellow nape, from the humid lowlands of the Pacific side of Costa Rica and western Panama. It does not occur in the guide area; the records on the map lie in Central America, within the map window. The Beautiful Woodpecker of Colombia was formerly treated as a subspecies of this species.
Voice
A rolling, somewhat harsh churr and loud, repeated chattering series, often from pairs or family groups. It drums in short rolls.
Recording: Johan Chaves — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
18–19 cm, with a straight, dark bill. The forehead is yellowish and the nape golden yellow; a broad black mask runs from the eye to the mantle. The back and wings are black, with a broad white stripe down the centre of the back and white bars on the wings. The underparts are grey to olive-brown, with a red patch in the centre of the belly and black-and-white barred flanks. The male has a red crown, the female a black crown between the yellow forehead and the yellow nape.
Confusion species
Beautiful Woodpecker Melanerpes pulcher in Colombia is very similar, but their ranges do not overlap. Red-crowned Woodpecker Melanerpes rubricapillus has a black-and-white barred back without a white central stripe and a pale head without a black mask. Black-cheeked Woodpecker Melanerpes pucherani has a barred back and a white spot behind the eye.
Habitat
Humid lowland forest and taller forest on the lower slopes, mainly in the canopy, at forest edges, in clearings with dead trees and in plantations, up to about 1500 m. It eats insects and much fruit. It nests in a self-excavated cavity, often in a dead tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area only on the Pacific slope of south-western Costa Rica and western Panama.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Not to be found in the guide area. In Costa Rica and western Panama pairs often perch on dead branches at forest edges and in clearings with remaining trees.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Its small range is heavily deforested, but the species tolerates semi-open woodland and forest edges.
Scientific name
Melanerpes chrysauchen | Salvin, 1870
Salvin described the species in 1870 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Melanerpes was introduced in 1832 by Swainson. The genus name comes from Greek melas, 'black', and herpēs, 'creeper', from herpō, 'to creep'. The species name comes from Greek khrusos, 'gold', and aukhēn, 'neck', for the golden nape. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bugaba, Chiriquí, Panama.