Hispaniolan woodpecker

Appearance

The Hispaniolan woodpecker is a gold and black barred bird growing to a length of from 22 to 28 cm. The adult male has a red crown and nape and is larger than the female, with a longer beak. The upper neck is striped black and white and the back and wings are boldly striped in black and gold. The rump is greenish-yellow, with some red on the feather tips, and the upper side of the tail is black with red upper-tail coverts.

The underside of the wings is greyish-brown with pale spotting and barring, and the underside of the tail is grey or olive. The fore-crown is grey or buff, the face and throat are grey and the underparts are buff, brown or olive, with some dark streaking on the flanks. The iris is yellow, the beak is long, slender, and grey, and the legs are grey. The adult female is similar to the male but has a black crown and red nape. The juvenile has a black crown with white and red spotting, an orange nape, and dark iris.

Distribution

It is found in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is mostly a woodland bird. Its range extends through many of Hispaniola's biomes: wet, dry, broadleaf, and coniferous forests, but also occurs in plantations, cactus scrub, mangrove areas, swamps, grasslands, palm groves, wooded agricultural areas, and urban parks.

Behavior

This woodpecker is quite vocal, emitting a range of sounds including yapping, squeaking, rolling and nasal calls. Drumming is done only occasionally.

Nestlings also receive a diverse diet from their parents. Usually the food given is regurgitated, but parents will also give young non-regurgitated food.

Habitat

This woodpecker forages in small noisy groups; the diet is varied and includes insects, spiders, scorpions, lizards, fruit, seeds, grain and sap. It can catch flying insects in flight, and larger food items are bashed on an "anvil" to break them up.

Unlike most woodpeckers, the Hispaniolan woodpecker is a social species that takes advantage of having a large number of individual adult birds in the colony to protect a nesting bank or tree. There may be twenty pairs of birds in a colony, with several nesting in the same tree. The nests are excavated in trunks and branches, and discarded holes are reused by Hispaniolan amazons, Hispaniolan parakeets, Hispaniolan trogons, Antillean piculets, and the golden swallow.

Reproduction

This species breeds throughout the year; however nesting usually starts in the spring. These birds are very social, and several pairs will nest in a single tree. When it comes to nest construction, both the male and female will create a nest whole within a tree. The work in a pair is well evenly distributed. Once eggs are laid, both parents take part in incubation, as well as feeding once the young have hatched. The average size of a clutch is four or five eggs. Previous observations report communal nesting in this species. Usually only females have been observed incubating on the same nest site.

Food

Hispaniolan woodpeckers are omnivorous, and primarily eat insects, berries, fruits, and plants. Since their source of food is in high trees, this species is rarely seen foraging on the ground; rather, they forage on the sides of tree trunks. They are known to be a crop pest in the Dominican Republic for eating from cacao plants and other fruit producing trees. They are known not to eat the seeds in the cacao plant, but the holes they create can lead to insect damage.

Some sexual dimorphisms have been compared with the foraging habits of this species. It has been noted that males and females sometimes differ in foraging habits. Females tend to glean on small branches, while males tend to tap and probe. Evidence of differing bill size shows dimorphism between the sexes in relation to foraging practices. As stated already, it is possible that the physical mechanics that males and females present in foraging, could connect to diverging characteristics in their physiological structure.