Beautiful Woodpecker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beautiful Woodpecker
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Piciformes
Family: Picidae
Genus: Melanerpes
Species: M. pulcher
Binomial name
Melanerpes pulcher
P.L. Sclater, 1870
Adult male (foreground, above) and female (background, below)

The Beautiful Woodpecker (Melanerpes pulcher) is a bird species in the woodpecker family (Picidae). It is endemic to Colombia.

Until recently, it was united with the Golden-naped Woodpecker (M. chrysauchen) of Central America as subspecies. But the different appearance and allopatric ranges argue in favor of recognizing the two as distinct species. According to "Birds of Northern South America" by Robin Restall the back is barred and the belly and breast are white, but that appears to be in error based on photos of the birds in Colombia. The image shown here appears to be the correct image.

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and heavily degraded former forest.

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.