Scarlet-backed Woodpecker Dryobates callonotus Scientific name definitions

These poorly known woodpeckers are small with bright red upperparts. They inhabit dry forests, scrubby regions with trees and cacti, semi-humid forests, and areas with thick vegetation near water. Frequently seen in pairs, Scarlet-backed Woodpeckers forage at all different heights, but their diet is unknown.

c. 13 cm; 23–33 g. Male has black feathers of forehead to nape extensively tipped red, greyish-brown ear-coverts; rest of face, including very thin line below eye, white, often dirtier or even brown on rear neck side, sometimes with hint of a thin dark malar line; brownish-scarlet upperparts, usually some brown feather bases showing through (more when worn); dark brown or blackish-brown flight-feathers, redder on secondaries and tertials; uppertail blackish-brown, central feather pair blacker, outer feathers whitish-yellow and barred black; white below with very light (variable) pale buff wash, sometimes faintly vermiculated darker; fairly long, broad bill, culmen straight or slightly curved, yellowish, usually darker base and sometimes tip; iris deep brown, occasionally deep red or tinged bluish; legs greenish-grey. Female has forehead to nape wholly black, often some white feathers at rear. Juvenile is heavily mottled with olive or greyish above, buffish-white below, head pattern more diffuse, male with small red feather tips on forecrown. Race <em>major</em> differs from nominate in darker ear-coverts with pale band behind and below, on average more dark vermiculations below.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Arid scrub with scattered trees and cacti, dry deciduous forest, semi-humid forest and edges, and dense growth along watercourses; also partially cleared areas. Lowlands to 1000 m, locally to 1400 m and to 1800 m (Loja) in Ecuador; to 1500 m in Peru.

Apparently resident.

Details of diet not recorded. Often in pairs. Forages at various levels in trees, often on smaller branches and very thin twigs.

Commonest call a rattle, 1–2 seconds long; also sharp “ki-dik”, sometimes in short fast series.

Little information. In W Ecuador, male with brood patch and nest with fledged young in Jul (1 Pople, R. G., I. J. Burfield, R. P. Clay, D. R. Cope, C. P. Kennedy, B. López, J. Reyes, B. Warren, and E. Yagual (1997). Bird Surveys and Conservation Status of Three Sites in Western Ecuador. Final Report of Project Ortalis ’96. CSB Conservation Publications, Cambridge, UK. Close ), juvenile seen in Jul, and immatures observed in Aug and October (2 Mischler, T. (2012). Status, abundance, seasonality, breeding evidence and an updated list of the birds of Cerro Blanco, Guayaquil, Ecuador. Cotinga 34:60–72. Close ); copulation recorded in Aug .

Not globally threatened. Reported to be very local in SW Colombia; fairly common in Ecuador and also in Peru . Occurs in Río Palenque Science Centre and Cerro Blanco Protected Reserve (Ecuador) and Tumbes National Reserve (Peru). Extension of range apparent in Ecuador since late 1970’s; has spread into more humid areas, presumably as a result of deforestation.