The African grey woodpecker (''Dendropicos goertae'') is a species of bird in the woodpecker family

Picidae Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. M ...

. Is a widespread and frequently common resident breeder in much of Sub-Saharan and equatorial Africa. It is a species associated with forest and bush which nests in a tree hole, often in an oil palm, laying two to four

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s. It is a common bird with a very wide range, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of " least concern".

Taxonomy

The African grey woodpecker was described by the German zoologist Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller in 1776 from a specimen collected in Senegal. He coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Picus goertae''. The specific epithet is from the French polymath

Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent F ...

who noted that "Goërtan" was the name used for the species in Senegal. The species was also illustrated in a set of plates that accompanied Brisson's work. The African grey woodpecker is now placed in the genus '' Dendropicos'' that was introduced by the French ornithologist Alfred Malherbe in 1849. Five

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised: * ''D. g. koenigi'' (

Neumann Neumann is German language, German and Yiddish language, Yiddish for "new man", and one of the List of the most common surnames in Europe#Germany, 20 most common German surnames. People * Von Neumann family, a Jewish Hungarian noble family A� ...

, 1903) – Mali to west Sudan * ''D. g. abessinicus'' (

Reichenow Anton Reichenow (1 August 1847 in Charlottenburg – 6 July 1941 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist and herpetologist. Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Natural History Museum of Berlin from 1874 to 1921. He was ...

, 1900) – east Sudan to west Ethiopia * ''D. g. goertae'' (Müller, PLS, 1776) – Senegal and Gambia to Mali. * ''D. g. centralis'' (Reichenow, 1900) – Sierra Leone to Nigeria, south Sudan, west Kenya and northwest Tanzania * ''D. g. meridionalis'' Louette &

Prigogine Prigozhin or Prigogine () is a masculine East Slavic surname. People * Alexandre Prigogine (1913–1991), Russian-born Belgian ornithologist * (1914–1999), Soviet/Ukrainian scientist and engineer * Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003), Russian-born ...

, 1982 – south Gabon and northwest Angola to south central Democratic Republic of the Congo The African grey woodpecker and the

eastern grey woodpecker The eastern grey woodpecker also grey-headed woodpecker and mountain gray woodpecker (''Dendropicos spodocephalus'') is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae. It is a resident breeder in eastern Africa. It has a large range and is a ...

(''Picidae spodocephalus'') were formerly treated as conspecific.

Description

Like other woodpeckers, this species has a straight pointed bill, a stiff tail to provide support against tree trunks, and zygodactyl or “yoked" feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backward. The long tongue can be darted forward to capture insects. This bird is in length. It is a typical woodpecker shape, and has unmarked green upperparts and a pale grey head and underparts. The rump is red, and there is a small red belly patch. The short tail is blackish. The adult male grey woodpecker has a red crown. Females have a plain grey head, lacking the red crown. Young birds are like the female, but the reds are paler, and there may be some flank barring.

Distribution and habitat

The African grey woodpecker is native to tropical parts of western and central Africa. Its range includes Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda. Its typical habitat includes woodland, savannah with isolated trees, copses of larger trees, riverside forest and pasture.

Behaviour and ecology

Like other woodpeckers, this species is an

insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

. It is frequently seen, and regularly taps or drums. The call is a loud and fast ''peet-peet-peet-peet''.

References

External links

Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the African grey woodpecker
{{Taxonbar, from=Q946681

African grey woodpecker The African grey woodpecker (''Dendropicos goertae'') is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae. Is a widespread and frequently common resident breeder in much of Sub-Saharan and equatorial Africa. It is a species associated with fo ...