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African Grey Woodpecker | Dendropicos goertae
Grijze specht | Pico goertán
A small grey-green woodpecker of the African savanna belt, recorded in the region only as a vagrant. In December 2021 four birds were seen and photographed in the south of the Algerian Sahara, the first record for North Africa. Since the species also occurs in Mauritania just south of the Western Palearctic boundary, a further record on the southern edge of the Sahara cannot be ruled out.
Voice
A shrill, rattling wik-wik-wik-wik or a rapid series of high, rather plaintive notes, often in duet; also a single sharp pik. Drums briefly.
Recording: Julien Birard — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
A small woodpecker with a plain grey head and underparts, an olive-green back and wings with faint pale barring, and a striking red rump. In the centre of the belly is a small yellow to orange-red patch, barely visible in some birds. The male has a red hindcrown, the female an all-grey head. The tail is dark with pale bars, the bill fairly short and grey. Juveniles are duller, with red on the crown in both sexes.
Confusion species
No other woodpecker in the region resembles it. Arabian Woodpecker (Dendrocoptes dorae) also has a plain belly with a red patch, but is brown rather than grey-green, lacks the red rump and lives far away in south-west Arabia. Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla), which winters in the Sahel, is scaled and barred grey-brown. In the Sahel itself Cardinal Woodpecker (Dendropicos fuscescens) and the Campethera woodpeckers resemble it, but are streaked or spotted.
Habitat
Acacia savanna, trees along dry riverbeds, date palms and other trees at oases and villages; in the Sahel also riverine woodland and wooded farmland. Elsewhere in Africa also in moister wooded country and gardens.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
Within the region known from a single record: four birds in the south of the Algerian Sahara on 23 December 2021 (Haddad & Afoutni 2022). Just outside the region it was found in 2003 and 2016 near Ouadâne in Mauritania, a little south of 21°N, where it may be resident. Beyond the region from Senegal and Mauritania through the Sahel and Sudan zones to Sudan, western Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, south to Congo.
How and when to look
Targeted searching makes little sense. Anyone visiting the acacia wadis and oases of the far south of Algeria or the Libyan Fezzan should photograph every small woodpecker; that is where a new record is most likely.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened and common in the Sahel. In the region a vagrant, or possibly a very scarce, overlooked resident of the southern fringe of the Sahara; the only record dates from December 2021.
Scientific name
Dendropicos goertae | (Müller, 1776)
Müller described the species in 1776 as Picus Goertae; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Dendropicos was introduced in 1849 by Malherbe. Dendropicos combines the Greek dendron, 'tree', with the Latin picus, 'woodpecker': a 'tree woodpecker'. goertae probably derives from 'Goertan', the name under which Buffon described this woodpecker from Senegal. The specimen the first description was based on came from Senegal.