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Crimson-crested Woodpecker | Campephilus melanoleucos
Zwartkeelspecht | Carpintero marcial
The Crimson-crested Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in the region, a South American species that in the Caribbean occurs only on Trinidad. It belongs to the genus Campephilus, whose members do not drum in long rolls but strike the wood with a powerful double knock. Pairs or family parties work up the trunks of tall trees, prising off large flakes of bark in search of beetle larvae.
Voice
The most distinctive sound is the double knock, a loud DA-drrr of two rapid strikes. Also a hollow, popping series tkep-tkep-tkep, sometimes speeding into a chatter, and when alarmed a repeated ka-wa-rrr.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
33–36 cm, large, with a pointed red crest and a long, pale horn-coloured bill; the eye is pale yellow. Upperparts, throat and upper breast are black. A white line runs down from the side of the neck over the mantle, and the two lines meet on the back in a white V. The underparts are pale buff with black barring. The male has an almost entirely red head with a whitish patch at the bill base and a small black-and-white spot on the ear coverts. The female has a black forehead and front of the crest and a broad, black-bordered white stripe from the bill across the cheek joining the neck line. In flight the white underwing coverts are visible.
Confusion species
On Trinidad only Lineated Woodpecker Dryocopus lineatus is similar. It has a dark bill, a thin white line from the bill across the face, and two white back stripes that run parallel and do not meet; the male has a red moustachial stripe. In Crimson-crested the back stripes form a V and the bill is pale.
Habitat
Humid lowland forest, hill forest and older secondary forest with tall trees, also forest edges and plantations with old shade trees. It forages mainly on the trunks and thick branches of large trees, flaking off bark and extracting the larvae of wood-boring beetles; it also takes ants and some fruit. The nest is an excavated cavity high in a trunk.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
In the region only on Trinidad, scattered through the forested parts of the island; it is absent from Tobago. Outside the region from eastern Panama through Colombia, Venezuela and the Guianas, across the Amazon basin to Bolivia, Paraguay and northern Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the forests of the Northern Range and Central Range on Trinidad. The double knock carries far and is the best lead; the bird can then be found on the trunk of a tall tree, often with its mate. Where Lineated Woodpecker is a possibility, the shape of the white back stripes settles it.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species has a very large range and a large population. On Trinidad it depends on forest with big trees and is therefore vulnerable to deforestation and logging.
Scientific name
Campephilus melanoleucos | (Gmelin, 1788)
Gmelin described the species in 1788 as Picus melanoleucos; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Campephilus was introduced in 1840 by Gray. Campephilus is Greek, from kampē 'caterpillar' and philos 'loving': 'caterpillar-lover', after its diet of insect larvae. melanoleucos is Greek, from melas 'black' and leukos 'white', after the black-and-white plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Suriname.