Black-rumped flameback

Black-rumped flameback
Conservation status

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Piciformes
Family: Picidae
Genus: Dinopium
Species: D. benghalense
Binomial name
Dinopium benghalense
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Subspecies
  • dilutum (Edward Blyth, 1852)
    (Pakistan and northwest India)
  • benghalense (Linnaeus, 1758)
    (northern India to Assam and Myanmar)
  • puncticolle (Malherbe, 1845)
    (peninsular India, northern Sri Lanka)
  • psarodes (A. A. H. Lichtenstein, 1793)
    (southern Sri Lanka)
Synonyms
  • Brachypternus benghalensis
  • Brachypternus aurantius

The black-rumped flameback (Dinopium benghalense), also known as the lesser golden-backed woodpecker or lesser goldenback, is a woodpecker found widely distributed in the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the few woodpeckers that are seen in urban areas. It has a characteristic rattling-whinnying call and an undulating flight. It is the only golden-backed woodpecker with a black throat and black rump.[2]

Description

Nominate race Kolkata, India.

The black-rumped flameback is a large species at 26–29 cm in length. It has a typical woodpecker shape, and the golden yellow wing coverts are distinctive. The rump is black and not red as in the greater flameback. The underparts are white with dark chevron markings. The black throat finely marked with white immediately separates it from other golden backed woodpeckers in the Indian region. The head is whitish with a black nape and throat, and there is a greyish eye patch. Unlike the greater flameback it has no dark moustachial stripes.[2][3]

The adult male has a red crown and crest. Females have a black forecrown spotted with white, with red only on the rear crest. Young birds are like the female, but duller.[2]

Like other woodpeckers, this species has a straight pointed bill, a stiff tail to provide support against tree trunks, and zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backward. The long tongue can be darted forward to capture insects.[4]

Leucistic birds have been recorded.[5] Two specimens of male birds from the northern Western Ghats have been noted to have red-tipped feathers on the malar region almost forming a malar stripe. A female specimen from Lucknow has been noted to have grown an abnormal downcurved hoopoe-like bill.[6]

Subspecies

Sri Lankan variation

The race in the arid northwestern India and Pakistan, dilutum, has pale yellow upperparts, a long crest and whiter underparts than the nominate race of the Gangetic plains. The upperparts have less spots. They prefer to breed in old gnarled tamarisks, Acacia and Dalbergia trunks. The nominate populations is found across India in the low elevations up to about 1000 m. Southern Peninsular form puncticolle has the throat black with small triangular white spots and the upper parts are a bright golden-yellow. The subspecies found in the Western Ghats is sometimes separated as tehminae (named after the wife of Salim Ali) and is more olive above, has fine spots on the black throat and the wing-covert spots are not distinct. The southern Sri Lankan subspecies D. b. psarodes has a crimson back and all the dark markings are blacker and more extensive. It hybridizes with the northern Sri Lankan race jaffnense which has a shorter beak.[2] The Sri Lankan race psarodes is sometimes considered a distinct species although it is said to intergrade with jaffnense near Puttalam, Kekirawa and Trincomalee.[7]

Distribution and habitat

This flameback is found mainly on the plains going up to an elevation of about 1200m in Pakistan, India south of the Himalayas and east till the western Assam valley and Meghalaya, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It is associated with open forest and cultivation. They are often seen in urban areas with wooded avenues.[4] It is somewhat rare in the Kutch and desert region of Rajasthan.[8]

Behaviour and ecology

A female

This species is normally seen in pairs or small parties and sometimes joins mixed-species foraging flocks.[9] They forage from the ground to the canopy. They feed on insects mainly beetle larvae from under the bark, visit termite mounds and sometimes feed on nectar.[10][11] As they make hopping movements around branches, they often conceal themselves from potential predators.[12] They adapt well in human-modified habitats making use of artificial constructions[13] fallen fruits[14] and even food scraps.[15]

The breeding season varies with weather and is between February and July. They frequently drum during the breeding season.[16] The nest hole is usually excavated by the birds and has a horizontal entrance and descends into a cavity. Sometimes birds may usurp the nest holes of other birds.[17] Nests have also been noted in mud embankments.[18] The eggs are laid inside the unlined cavity. The normal clutch is three and the eggs are elongate and glossy white.[4][19] The eggs hatch after about 11 days of incubation. The chicks leave the nest after about 20 days.[20]

feeding on a Tamarind tree Arumuganeri, Tamil Nadu

In culture

The Sri Lankan these woodpeckers go by the generic name of kæralaa in Sinhala. In some parts of the island, it is also called kottoruwa although it more often refers to barbets.[21] This bird appears in a 4.50 rupee Sri Lankan postal stamp.[22] It also appears in a 3.75 Taka postal stamp from Bangladesh.

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Dinopium benghalense". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Rasmussen, PC & JC Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide. Volume 2. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. p. 289.
  3. ↑ Blanford, WT (1895). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Birds. Volume 3. Taylor and Francis, London. pp. 58–60.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Whistler, Hugh (1949). Popular handbook of Indian birds (4 ed.). Gurney and Jackson, London. pp. 285–287. ISBN 1-4067-4576-6.
  5. ↑ Khacher,Lavkumar (1989). "An interesting colour phase of the Lesser Goldenbacked Woodpecker (Dinopium benghalense)". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 86 (1): 97.
  6. ↑ Goodwin, Derek (1973). "Notes on woodpeckers (Picidae)". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 17 (1): 1–44.
  7. ↑ Ali S & Ripley SD (1983). Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. Volume 4 (2 ed.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 196–201.
  8. ↑ Himmatsinhji,MK (1979). "Unexpected occurrence of the Goldenbacked Woodpecker Dinopium benghalense (Linnaeus) in Kutch". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 76 (3): 514–515.
  9. ↑ Kotagama, SW & E Goodale (2004). "The composition and spatial organisation of mixedspecies flocks in a Sri Lankan rainforest". Forktail 20: 63–70.
  10. ↑ Chakravarthy,AK (1988). "Predation of Goldenbacked Woodpecker, Dinopium benghalense (Linn.) on Cardamom Shoot-and-Fruit Borer, Dichocrocis punctiferalis (Guene)". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 85 (2): 427–428.
  11. ↑ Balasubramanian,P (1992). "Southern Goldenbacked Woodpecker Dinopium benghalense feeding on the nectar of Banana Tree Musa paradisiaca". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 89 (2): 254.
  12. ↑ Nair, Manoj V (1995). "Unusual escape behaviour in Goldenbacked Woodpecker Dinopium benghalense (Linn.)". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 92 (1): 122.
  13. ↑ Rajan,S Alagar (1992). "Unusual foraging site of Goldenbacked Woodpecker Dinopium benghalense (Linn.)". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 89 (3): 374.
  14. ↑ Nameer, PO (1992). "An unusual get together between a squirrel and a woodpecker". Newsletter for Birdwatchers 32 (3&4): 9–10.
  15. ↑ Mukherjee,A (1998). "Lesser Goldenbacked Woodpecker and Koel feeding on cooked rice". Newsletter for Birdwatchers 38 (4): 70.
  16. ↑ Neelakantan,KK (1962). "Drumming by, and an instance of homo-sexual behaviour in, the Lesser Goldenbacked Woodpecker (Dinopium benghalense)". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 59 (1): 288–290.
  17. ↑ Santharam,V (1998). "Nest usurpation in Woodpeckers". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 95 (2): 344–345.
  18. ↑ Singh,Thakur Dalip (1996). "First record of the Lesser Golden Backed Woodpecker nesting in an earthen wall". Newsletter for Birdwatchers 36 (6): 111.
  19. ↑ Hume, AO (1890). The nests and eggs of Indian birds. Volume 2 (2 ed.). R H Porter, London. pp. 309–311.
  20. ↑ Osmaston, BB (1922). "Woodpecker occupying nesting box". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 28 (4): 1137–1138.
  21. ↑ Anonymous (1998). "Vernacular Names of the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent" (PDF). Buceros 3 (1): 53–109.
  22. ↑ http://www.birdtheme.org/country/srilanka.html

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