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Ringed Woodpecker | Celeus torquatus
Zwartborstspecht | Carpintero pechinegro | Pica-pau-de-coleira
The Ringed Woodpecker is the largest Celeus woodpecker of the guide area, with a pale, cinnamon head and a broad black breast band. It lives high in Amazonian forest and calls less often than related species. In western Amazonia the birds have a black-barred back.
Voice
A loud, clear series of three to five whistled notes, kee-kee-kee-kee, falling slightly, and a short, nasal call. It drums in short bursts.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
26–28 cm, with a shaggy crest and a straight, pale, yellowish bill. The head and crest are pale cinnamon-brown to buff, paler than the rest of the body. A broad black band runs across the breast and upper mantle. The back and wings are rufous with black bars; the belly is buff with black bars or scales. The tail is rufous with black bars. The male has a red malar stripe, the female does not.
Confusion species
Chestnut Woodpecker Celeus elegans is darker chestnut, without a black breast band, and has a yellow rump. Variable Woodpecker Celeus undatus is smaller, densely barred throughout and without a black breast. Rufous-headed Woodpecker Celeus spectabilis also has a black breast, but has a deep rufous head and a creamy white, black-spotted belly, and lives mainly in bamboo. Cream-colored Woodpecker Celeus flavus is entirely creamy yellow.
Habitat
Tall humid terra firme lowland forest, várzea and tall secondary forest, mainly in the canopy and upper middle levels, from the lowlands to about 1000 m. It eats mainly ants and termites from nests in trees, and also fruit. 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 the lowlands east of the Andes, mainly in Amazonia. In Ecuador in the eastern lowlands. In Peru throughout the Amazonian lowlands. In Bolivia in the lowlands of the north and centre. Absent west of the Andes and from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Venezuela, the Guianas and Amazonian Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
From canopy towers and along rivers with tall forest, search the crowns for large, rufous woodpeckers. Listen for the clear whistled series, especially in the early morning.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a large range, but depends on tall forest and declines where this disappears.
Scientific name
Celeus torquatus | (Boddaert, 1783)
Boddaert described the species in 1783 as Picus torquatus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Celeus was introduced in 1831 by Boie. The genus name comes from Greek keleos, the name for a green woodpecker. The species name comes from Latin torquatus, 'collared', from torques, 'necklace', for the black band on breast and neck. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.