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Powerful Woodpecker | Campephilus pollens
Bruingebandeerde specht | Carpintero poderoso | Pica-pau-poderoso
The Powerful Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker of higher montane forest in the northern Andes. It lives in pairs in cloud forest and upper montane forest, where it chops into large trunks and branches for beetle larvae. Like the other Campephilus woodpeckers it announces itself with a short drum of a few loud raps.
Voice
A nasal, grating call kee-ah and a dry, rattling krrrr. It drums with a short series of two to a few loud raps.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
33–37 cm, with a long, straight, dark bill and a crest. The head, back and wings are largely black. A white stripe runs from the cheek along the side of the neck to the back, where it becomes a white V; the lower back and rump are white. The throat and upper breast are black, the rest of the underparts cinnamon with black barring. The male has a red crown and crest, the female an all-black head.
Confusion species
Crimson-bellied Woodpecker Campephilus haematogaster lives lower on the eastern slope and has red underparts and a red rump. Crimson-mantled Woodpecker Colaptes rivolii is smaller, with a red back and yellow underparts. Lineated Woodpecker Dryocopus lineatus lacks the white lower back and lives almost only below 1500 m.
Habitat
Humid cloud forest and upper montane forest, forest edges and clearings with old trees, mostly between 1800 and 3500 m. It searches trunks and large branches, often from mid-level to the canopy, for large beetle larvae and other insects. It nests in a self-excavated cavity high in a tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in all three Andean ranges. In Ecuador on both slopes of the Andes. In Peru in the Andes of the north. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area only in far western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In old cloud forest, listen for the blows of chopping and the short drums. Pairs often move through the forest with mixed flocks and stay working on one trunk for a long time.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species needs old forest with large trees and declines locally through logging and the conversion of montane forest to pasture.
Scientific name
Campephilus pollens | (Bonaparte, 1845)
Bonaparte described the species in 1845 as Picus pollens; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Campephilus was introduced in 1840 by Gray. The genus name combines Greek kampē, 'caterpillar', with philos, 'loving'. The species name comes from Latin pollens, 'powerful' or 'strong'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Colombia.