Bennett's woodpecker (''Campethera bennettii'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the 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. ...

. It is found in woodlands and bushes in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) has assessed it as a least-concern species.

Taxonomy

This species was described by Andrew Smith in 1836. Two subspecies are recognised: ''Campethera bennettii bennettii'' and ''C. b. capricorni''. The common name and Latin binomial commemorate the British naturalist

Edward Turner Bennett Edward Turner Bennett (6 January 1797 – 21 August 1836) was an English zoologist and writer. He was the elder brother of the botanist John Joseph Bennett.

. Bennett's woodpecker, the fine-spotted woodpecker, the Nubian woodpecker and the speckle-throated woodpecker form a

superspecies In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

Description

Bennett's woodpecker is about long and weighs . The male's forehead, crown and nape are red. The chin and throat are white. The upperparts are brown, yellow and white. The underparts are pale yellow, and there are dark spots on the breast and flanks. The eyes are red, the beak is grey, and the legs are bluish-green or grey-green. The female has a black forehead with white spots, and its ear coverts and throat are brown or blackish-brown. The juvenile bird has a black forehead and crown and darker upperparts. The subspecies ''capricorni'' is slightly larger, and its underparts have a deeper colour and fewer spots.

Distribution and habitat

This woodpecker is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and it has a patchy distribution. Its habitat is woodlands and bushes, including

miombo Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located in central and southern tropical Africa. It includes three woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) chara ...

, '' Baikiaea'', ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

'' and

mopane ''Colophospermum mopane'', commonly called mopane, mopani, butterfly tree, turpentine tree, or balsam tree, is a tree in the legume family (Fabaceae), that grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, in elevation, in parts of Southern Africa. The tree ...

woodlands.

Behaviour

Bennett's woodpecker is found singly, in pairs or in family groups. It mostly forages on the ground, either bare or with short grass, and also feeds in trees. It mostly eats ants and termites, including their eggs. Its calls include ' notes, a series of ', ' or ', and a chattering '. Breeding occurs from August to February. The woodpecker excavates or reuses holes in trees. Three eggs are laid and then incubated for 15 to 18 days.

Status

The species has a stable population and there is no evidence of substantial threats, so the IUCN has assessed it as a

least-concern species A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

Gallery

Bennett's Woodpecker, Campethera bennettii at Marakele National Park, Limpopo, South Africa (male below, female above) (16280762675).jpg, A pair (male at left) Bennett's Woodpecker, Campethera bennettii at Marakele National Park, Limpopo, South Africa ( male displaying) (16093228688).jpg, Bennett's woodpecker 2 (2769926445).jpg, Female foraging on the ground Bennett's Woodpecker, Campethera bennettii at Marakele National Park. Note the extended tongue catching an ant on the ground. (14077749051).jpg,

References

External links

Image at ADW
{{Taxonbar, from=Q817868 Bennett's woodpecker Birds of Southern Africa Bennett's woodpecker Taxonomy articles created by Polbot