Tristram's Woodpecker

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iTristram's Woodpecker

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Picidae
Genus:	Dryocopus
Species:	D. javensis
Subspecies:	D. javensis richardsi

Trinomial name

Dryocopus javensis richardsi
(Tristram, 1879)

The Tristram's Woodpecker (kor.: 크낙새 khulak) (Dryocopus javensis richardsi) is a very rare Korean subspecies of the White-bellied Woodpecker. It was discovered and described by English scholar and ornithologist Henry Baker Tristram in 1879.

1 Description
2 Habitat and Ecology
3 Threats
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Description

The Tristram's Woodpecker belongs with a size of 46 cm to the largest woodpeckers. Both the tuft and the cheek patches are crimson red. Black upperparts, throat and upper breast contrasted with white underparts, wing tips and a white rump. It has four toes of which two are directed backwards. Its tailfeathers are firm. Its native name was derived from the strange call which sounds like kullak!

[edit] Habitat and Ecology

This woodpecker inhabits dense mountain forests above 1000 m as well as urban areas. It is commonly found in areas with chestnuts, oaks, poplars, and elms. It preferred dead trees where it build its hollow trunk and it searches the bark for insects. The breeding period is from April to May where the female lays three to four eggs. It is searching for food before sunrise and it is flying back to the nest at sunset. It can move quickly from tree to tree and at danger it is prostrating down a trunk.

[edit] Threats

Historically the Tristram's Woodpecker occurred on the Japanese island of Tshushima and on the Korean peninsula. Due to the intensive hunting and the request for museum specimens in the western world between 1898 and 1902 this species became almost completely vanished from that island. In 1920 Japanese ornithologist Dr. Nagamichi Kuroda found the last specimen on Tshushima. Also in Korea it became a rare bird due to the hard deforestation. Though it was legally protected since 1952 it was extirpated from South Korea by 1978. In 1993 a couple was seen in the demilitarized zone. Today it only occurs in North Korea. Probably less than 50 individuals occur in the provinces of Kangwŏn-do and North Hwanghae in particular in the remained forests of Rinsan, Phyongsan, Jangphung, Pakyon, Kaesong around the area of Myŏraksan. On May 30, 1968 it was proclaimed as National Monument No. 197 and therefore it enjoyed the special protection of the government. It is listed in Appendix I CITES but there is no special entry for this subspecies in the IUCN redlist.