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White-throated Woodpecker | Piculus leucolaemus
Witkeelspecht | Carpintero goliblanco | Pica-pau-de-garganta-branca
The White-throated Woodpecker is a small, green woodpecker of the Amazonian lowlands and foothills east of the Andes, with a white throat and a yellow cheek stripe. It lives high in the canopy and often joins mixed flocks. The Lita Woodpecker Piculus litae, formerly lumped with it, lives west of the Andes.
Voice
A long, hissing call falling in pitch, and a short series of high notes. It drums little.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
19–21 cm, with a straight, greyish bill. The upperparts are golden olive-green. A yellow stripe runs from the base of the bill below the eye to the side of the neck; the throat is white. The breast is olive-green with pale spots, and the belly is yellowish with olive-green bars. The male has a red crown and nape and a red malar stripe; the female has an olive-green crown and red only on the nape.
Confusion species
Yellow-throated Woodpecker Piculus flavigula has a yellow throat and an entirely yellow head below the crown. Golden-green Woodpecker Piculus chrysochloros is larger, with a yellow throat and more strongly barred, yellow underparts. Golden-olive Woodpecker Colaptes rubiginosus has a grey crown with a red border and a whitish cheek, and lives mainly on the Andean slopes.
Habitat
Tall humid lowland forest on terra firme, also várzea, forest edges and foothill forest, up to about 1200 m. It searches the canopy for ants, termites and beetle larvae. It nests in a self-excavated cavity 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 and foothills east of the Andes. In Ecuador and Peru in the Amazonian lowlands and on the lower eastern slope of the Andes. In Bolivia in the northern and central lowlands and foothills. Absent west of the Andes and from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Brazilian Amazonia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search mixed canopy flocks, for instance from a canopy tower or along a forest edge on a slope. The hissing call often reveals it.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is tied to tall forest, but still occurs widely in large, little-disturbed forest areas.
Scientific name
Piculus leucolaemus | (Natterer & Malherbe, 1845)
Natterer & Malherbe described the species in 1845 as Picus leucolaemus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Piculus was introduced in 1824 by Spix. The genus name is a diminutive of Latin picus, 'woodpecker'. The species name comes from Greek leukos, 'white', and laimos, 'throat', for the white throat. The specimen the first description was based on came from Brazil.