The Himalayan flameback (''Dinopium shorii''), also known as the Himalayan goldenback, 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 ...

. At the moment very little is known of this species and more fieldwork is required. The Himalayan flameback is not threatened but it is suspected that

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

could severely affect the species population.

Description

The Himalayan flameback is very similar in appearance to the Greater Goldenback (''Chrysocolaptes lucidus''), but is not at all closely related. The primary difference is its smaller size and bill. The Himalayan flameback can be identified by: their black hind neck, the brownish centre on their throat, that can go down the breast on some and is bordered by an irregular black spotting. They also have an indistinct divided moustachial stripe, the centre of which is brownish and sometimes reddish in males. The Himalayan flameback also has ether reddish or brown eye and three toes. The breast of the Himalayan flameback is irregularly streaked with black but on occasion completely white. Their wings are coppery brown to red in colour. Lastly the males have a yellowish-red forehead that becomes more red on the crest. In contrast, the female's crest is entirely black streaked with white. In both sexes the crest is bordered by white and black bands on either side of their head.

Taxonomy

Part of the family

and the genus ''

Dinopium ''Dinopium'' is a genus of birds in the woodpecker family Picidae. The species are found in South and Southeast Asia. The genus was introduced by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1814 to accommodate the common flameback ( ...

'' which consists of

woodpeckers 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 ...

with only three toes, the Himalayan flameback forms a super species with the

Common flameback The common flameback (''Dinopium javanense''), also referred to as the common goldenback, is a small (28–30 cm), three-toed woodpecker in the family Picidae, found throughout South and Southeast Asia.Pittie, Aasheesh & Jayapal, Rajah & Jay ...

. There are also two recognized sub-species within Himalayan flameback, ''D.s. shorii'' and ''D.s. anguste''. The sister species of the Himalayan flameback are '' Meiglyptes tristis'' and ''

Celeus brachyurus The rufous woodpecker (''Micropternus brachyurus'') is a medium-sized brown woodpecker native to South and Southeast Asia. It is short-billed, foraging in pairs on small insects, particularly ants and termites, in scrub, evergreen, and deciduous ...

''.

Distribution and habitat

Himalayan Flamebacks are commonly found in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n subcontinent, primarily in the lower-to-middle altitudes of the Himalayan

sal forest Sal, SAL, or S.A.L. may refer to: Personal name * Sal (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname Places * Sal, Cape Verde, an island and municipality * Sal, Iran, a village in East Azerbaijan Province * Ca ...

region. Its range spans across

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, and

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

, where they are year-round residents. A disjunct population also occurs in south-eastern

Ghats Ghat, a term used in the Indian subcontinent, depending on the context could refer either to a range of stepped hills with valleys (ghati in Hindi), such as the Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats; or the series of steps leading down to a body of ...

. The Himalayan flameback's

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

mainly compromises of mature tropical/subtropical

deciduous forests In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, afte ...

as well as semi-

evergreen forests An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zon ...

. They prefer lowland ''

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending in ...

'' and ''

Bombax ''Bombax'' is a genus of mainly tropical trees in the mallow family. They are native to western Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and the subtropical regions of East Asia and northern Australia. It is distinguished from the genu ...

'' forest.

Behaviour

Vocalization

The Himalayan flameback's call is a series of rapidly repeated klak-klak-klak-klak-klak. The call is slower and softer than the Greater Goldenback.

Diet

The diet of Himalayan flamebacks is poorly known. They manly flock and feed together with other birds such as the Greater Goldenback. It is assumed that their primary prey is arthropod

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

the same as many other woodpecker species.

Reproduction

Very little know of their breeding habits. What is known is that they breed from March to May and nest in excavated holes in trees. Their clutch size is 2–3 eggs.

References

External links

Vocolizations
- xeno-canto
Himalayan flamback video and photos
at the Internet Bird Collection {{Taxonbar, from=Q1266154 Himalayan flameback Birds of Bangladesh Birds of Bhutan Birds of India Birds of Myanmar Birds of Nepal Himalayan flameback Taxonomy articles created by Polbot