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

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

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. M ...

. It is found in woodlands and bushes in

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

. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(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 The Nubian woodpecker (''Campethera nubica'') is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is distributed widely in Central and Eastern Africa, from Chad in west to Somalia in east and Tanzania in south. It is a fairly common species with a wid ...

and the

speckle-throated woodpecker The speckle-throated woodpecker (''Campethera scriptoricauda''), also known as Reichenow's woodpecker, is an East African woodpecker often considered a subspecies of Bennett's woodpecker. The bird is named after the German ornithologist Anton Rei ...

form a superspecies.

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 The Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located primarily in Central Africa. It includes four woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized b ...

, ''

Baikiaea ''Baikiaea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. Species include: *'' Baikiaea fragrantissima'' *'' Baikiaea ghesquiereana'' *'' Baikiaea insignis'' *''Baikiaea plurijuga'' – Rhodesian-teak *'' Baikiaea robynsii' ...

'', ''

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

'' and

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

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 categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

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 Bennett's woodpecker (''Campethera bennettii'') is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in woodlands and bushes in Africa. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as a least-concern species. Taxon ...

Birds of Southern Africa

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot