The eastern grey woodpecker also grey-headed woodpecker and mountain gray woodpecker (''Dendropicos spodocephalus'') 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 ...
. It is a resident breeder in eastern
Africa. It has a large range and is a fairly common species. No special threats have been recognised and the
International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the bird's conservation status as being of "
least concern".
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. The adult male eastern grey woodpecker has a red crown and nape, and females have a plain grey head, lacking the red crown. The upper parts of the body are yellowish-green, the rump is red, and the wings and tail are dark brown. The remaining parts of the head and the underparts are pale grey, apart from a reddish patch on the hinder part of the belly. The beak is dark grey or black, the legs are greenish-grey and the eyes red to brown. Young birds are similar to the female, but the reds are paler, and there may be some barring on the flanks and some red on the crown in both sexes.
Distribution and habitat
The eastern grey woodpecker is a native of tropical eastern Africa, its range including Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan and Tanzania.
Its habitat is humid forests, forest verges and gallery forests. It is found in the lowlands and at altitudes of up to .
[
]
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 ...
, and forages on trees and on the ground for moths, centipedes, larvae and pupae. It is frequently seen, and regularly taps or drums. This species and the 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 ...
were formerly considered conspecific.
References
External links
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q10489324
Dendropicos
Birds of East Africa
Birds described in 1850
Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte