Strickland's woodpecker (''Leuconotopicus stricklandi'') is a medium-sized species of

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family (biology), 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 ...

endemic to Mexico. The Arizona woodpecker (''L. arizonae'') was formerly considered the northern subspecies of this bird until the 42nd supplement of the American Ornithologists Union checklist, which officially split them into two separate species.

Taxonomy

Strickland's woodpecker was first described by the French ornithologist Alfred Malherbe in 1845 and given its current name which commemorates the British scientist

Hugh Edwin Strickland Hugh Edwin Strickland (2 March 1811 – 14 September 1853) was an English geologist, ornithology, ornithologist, naturalist and systematist. Through the British Association, he proposed a series of rules for the nomenclature of organisms in zool ...

. Some taxonomic authorities, including the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

, continue to place this species in the genus '' Picoides''.

Description

Strickland's woodpeckers grow to be about 7 to 8 inches in length, and are mainly brown and white in color. They are brown on top with a dark rump and have white underparts speckled with many brown spots. Strickland's woodpeckers usually have three white bars on their wings, and have two white stripes across their face which join with another white bar on their neck. Male Strickland's woodpeckers also have a red patch on the nape of their head which is lacking on females. The nest of this species is in a cavity excavated from a dead tree trunk. The female lays three to four white eggs on a bed of wood chips, but other details of nesting periods and duration are mostly unknown.

Habitat

A quiet and shy bird, Strickland's woodpeckers are fairly common in their limited range, usually found in pine forests and mixed pine-oak slopes at heights of about 4,500 to 7,000 feet. The Strickland's woodpecker's range generally follows a thin east–west band in central Mexico from

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

References

External links

Strickland's woodpecker
at AviBase. Also, Colusa High School in Colusa California, were the ones to have discovered this species in 1942.
Strickland's woodpecker videos
on the Internet Bird Collection
Photo
www.nashvillezoo.org {{Taxonbar, from=Q27074926, from2=Q58294735 Strickland's woodpecker Endemic birds of Mexico Strickland's woodpecker Strickland's woodpecker Birds of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt