Picoides leucotos
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The white-backed woodpecker (''Dendrocopos leucotos'') is a
Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...
n
woodpecker 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. ...
belonging to the genus ''Dendrocopos''.


Taxonomy

The white-backed woodpecker was described by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1802 under the binomial name ''Picus leucotos''. The specific epithet ''leucotos'' combines the
Classical Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
''leukos'' meaning "white" and ''-nōtos'' meaning "-backed". The type locality is
Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
, a historical region mainly located in Poland. The species is now placed in the genus '' Dendrocopos'' that was introduced by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch in 1816. Twelve subspecies are recognised. * ''D. l. leucotos'' ( Bechstein, 1802) – widespread across Eurasia from north, central and eastern Europe to northeast Asia, Korea and
Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh ...
* ''D. l. uralensis'' (
Malherbe Malherbe may refer to: People * Malherbe (surname) ** François de Malherbe (1555-1628), French poet, reformer of French language Places France * La Haye-Malherbe, municipality of Eure (département), Eure * Malherbe-sur-Ajon, new municipal ...
, 1860) – west
Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
to Lake Baikal * ''D. l. lilfordi'' ( Sharpe & Dresser, 1871) – Pyrenees to Asia Minor, Caucasus and Transcaucasia * ''D. l. tangi'' Cheng, 1956 – Sichuan province, western China * ''D. l. subcirris'' ( Stejneger, 1886) –
Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The lar ...
, northern Japan * ''D. l. stejnegeri'' (
Kuroda Kuroda (written: lit. "black ricefield") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese painter * Akinobu Kuroda 黒田 明伸, Japanese historian * Chris Kuroda, lighting designer and operator for the band Phish and J ...
, 1921) – northern Honshū, Japan * ''D. l. namiyei'' (Stejneger, 1886) – south Honshū, Kyushu,
Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...
(Japan) * ''D. l. takahashii'' (Kuroda & Mori, 1920) –
Ulleungdo Ulleungdo (also spelled Ulreungdo; Hangul: , ) is a South Korean island 120 km (75 mi) east of the Korean Peninsula in the Sea of Japan, formerly known as the Dagelet Island or Argonaut Island in Europe. Volcanic in origin, the rocky s ...
Island (off eastern Korea) * ''D. l. quelpartensis'' (Kuroda & Mori, 1918) – Jeju Island (off South Korea) * ''D. l. owstoni'' (Ogawa, 1905) –
Amami Ōshima , also known as Amami, is the largest island in the Amami archipelago between Kyūshū and Okinawa. It is one of the Satsunan Islands. The island, 712.35 km2 in area, has a population of approximately 73,000 people. Administratively it is ...
Island in the northern Ryukyu Islands, Japan * ''D. l. fohkiensis'' ( Buturlin, 1908) – mountains of Fujian province, southeast China * ''D. l. insularis'' ( Gould, 1863) – Taiwan The subspecies ''D. l. owstoni'' is sometimes considered a distinct species, the Amami woodpecker.


Description

It is the largest of the spotted woodpeckers in the
western Palearctic The Western Palaearctic or Western Palearctic is part of the Palaearctic realm, one of the eight biogeographic realms dividing the Earth's surface. Because of its size, the Palaearctic is often divided for convenience into two, with Europe, North ...
, 24–26 cm long with wing-span 38–40 cm. The plumage is similar to the great spotted woodpecker, but with white bars across the wings rather than spots, and a white lower back. The male has a red crown, the female a black one. Drumming by males is very loud, calls include a soft ''kiuk'' and a longer ''kweek''.


Distribution

The nominate race ''D. l. leucotos'' occurs in central and northern
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, with the race ''D. l. lilfordi'' found in the
Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
and
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
. Ten further races occur in the region eastwards as far as
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
and Japan. It is a scarce bird, requiring large tracts of mature deciduous forests with high amounts of standing and laying dead wood. Numbers have decreased in Nordic countries. In Sweden, its population decline has caused the Swedish government to enact protection for the species in the national Biodiversity Action Plan.


Ecology

In the breeding season it excavates a nest hole about 7 cm wide and 30 cm deep in a decaying tree trunk. It lays three to five white
eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
and incubates for 10–11 days. It lives predominantly on wood-boring beetles as well as their
larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...
e, as well as other
insect 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 ...
s, nuts, seeds and berries.


Life Span

In the wild the white-backed Woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos) can survive between three to four years, while in captivity they can survive for approximately eleven years.


References


Further reading

* Gorman, Gerard (2004): Woodpeckers of Europe: A Study of the European Picidae. Bruce Coleman, UK. .


External links


Avibase
{{Authority control white-backed woodpecker Birds of Russia Birds of Eurasia white-backed woodpecker white-backed woodpecker