Striped woodpecker

Appearance

The striped woodpecker is 15 to 16 cm long and weighs 35 to 39 g. Males and females have the same plumage except on their heads. Adults of both sexes have a black forehead and crown, a blackish hindneck, and a generally white face with a blackish stripe back and down from the eye and a black malar stripe. Males have some streaks or spots on the crown and a red to orange-red nape. The female's nape is black where the male's is red and its crown usually is solid black. Both sexes' upperparts are brownish black, with white scallops on northern birds and narrow white bars on southern ones. Their flight feathers are barred black and white. Their tail is dark brownish black with narrow white or buff-white bars. Their underparts are white with a yellow or buff tinge, and black streaks on the breast and belly and black bars on the flanks and undertail coverts. Juveniles are duller and browner than adults, with irregular bars on their upperparts and heavy streaks and bars on their underparts. Males have a red crown and females a small red patch on the crown.

Distribution

The striped woodpecker has two disjunct populations. One is in west-central and southern Bolivia and extreme northern Argentina. The other is in central and southern Chile and southwestern Argentina.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the striped woodpecker as being of Least Concern. It has a large range, and though its population size is not known it is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It occurs in several national parks in Chile and Argentina but is poorly known and "requires study".

Habitat

It inhabits a variety of landscapes, most of them semi-open to open forest. They include moist to humid forests dominated by "Nothofagus" or "Podocarpus", "Polylepis" woodland, and dryer areas with cacti and scattered trees. In the north it also occurs in the interior of mature wet forest with watercourses, and both north and south occurs in lightly treed pastures, orchards and plantations, and gardens. In elevation it ranges between 1,600 and 4,000 m in Bolivia but only up to 1,800 m in Chile and 2,700 m in Argentina.

Reproduction

The striped woodpecker is believed to nest between June and September in Bolivia and between October and January in Chile and Argentina. It excavates a nest cavity in a tree or cactus, typically between about 2 and 12 m above the ground. The clutch size is three to five eggs; the incubation period and time to fledging are not known. Both sexes provision nestlings.

Food

The striped woodpecker usually forages alone but occasionally joins mixed-species feeding flocks. Its diet has not been defined in detail but it is known to feed on adult and larval insects. It takes its food mainly by gleaning and probing but also pecks and hammers to reach below the substrate surface.