Heart-spotted Woodpecker Hemicircus canente Scientific name definitions

15–17 cm; 37–50 g. Very small, compact woodpecker with thin neck, large head with prominent crest, and strikingly short and rounded tail. Male has black head and hindneck, very small white spots or speckles on forehead and forecrown; throat and side of neck white, tinged buff or cream  , olive-grey or buffish grey on lower throat and breast; upperparts except rump black, sometimes some white bars on back or uppertail-coverts, rump white or off-white (special gland produces secretion causing buff staining); inner scapulars black, outer scapulars, tertials, lesser and median coverts and variable number of inner greater coverts white to buffish white with large, black heart-shaped marks  , remaining coverts black with thin white edges and tips; flight-feathers black, narrowly edged white on inner webs; uppertail black; belly and undertail-coverts black  (sometimes very narrowly barred), rarely entire underparts, including breast, black; underwing blackish, white coverts and base of primaries; long bill relatively slender but broad-based, with chisel tip, dark brown to blackish; iris brown to dull red-brown; legs brown, or tinged greenish. Female  has shorter bill and shorter wing than male (which is c. 14% larger) (1 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ), and also differs in having white or buffish-white forehead and forecrown. Juvenile similar to adult female, but pale areas more buffy, less white, forehead often partly barred black, usually darker below, including throat, but always at least some white on side of neck.

W & NE peninsular India, Bangladesh; and from SW, S & E Myanmar, and S Annam, S to S Thailand, Cambodia and S Vietnam (Cochinchina).

Moist and dense deciduous and evergreen forests, at forest edge, in secondary forest, bamboo, and open deciduous forest; particularly fond of bamboo and coffee plantations (and teak) in W of range, where mean encounter rate of 0·11 birds/km (2 Trivedi, P. and Soni, V.C. (2006). Significant bird records and local extinctions in Purna and Ratanmahal Wildlife Sanctuaries, Gujarat, India. Forktail. 22: 39–48. Close ), and shows similar liking for bamboo in Cochinchina. Lowlands, from plains up to 900 m and 1000 m in SE Asia, to 1300 m in India.

Ants, termites (Isoptera), larvae  , and other insects comprise bulk of diet. Usually singly or in pairs, or in mixed-species parties. Forages on twigs in canopy, also on trunks and higher dead branches; gleans, pecks and hammers. Often perches crosswise on twig; moves rapidly along twigs and branches. Observed pecking holes in dry pods of Cassia fistula to extract insect larvae. Significant morphological differences between the sexes suggest differences in foraging behaviour, but no quantitative data exist.

Squeaky nasal “ki-yew” considered similar to voice of Ashy Drongo (Dicrurus leucophaeus) or Shikra (Accipiter badius) (3 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia: the Ripley Guide. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ), “chirrick” or “ch-yew”, emphasis on second syllable, repeated several times, very like corresponding call of H. concretus; also, high-pitched “kee-kee-kee-kee” and long-drawn grating “chur-r”; “su-sie” notes in display. Drums weakly, infrequently and perhaps substituted by duetting calls (4 Santharam, V. (1998). Drumming frequency in woodpeckers. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 95(3): 506-507. Close ).

Nov–Apr; eggs early Jul in Peninsular Malaysia (1 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ). Displays with bowing or bobbing movements and associated vocalizations. Tiny nest-hole  excavated in dead branch, occasionally fence post, usually low down, 1–4 m, but occasionally much higher, to 12 m or more; entrance hole 3·8 cm, tunnel c. 27 cm and chamber 13 cm in diameter (1 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ). Clutch three eggs, less commonly two, white, 23·1–23·3 mm × 17·2 mm (1 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ); no other information.

Not globally threatened. Sparsely distributed in India, locally more frequent; no recent records from Bangladesh, last recorded in NE of country in May 1984 (5 Thompson, P. M., W. G. Harvey, D. L. Johnson, D. J. Millin, S. M. A. Rashid, D. A. Scott, C. Stanford, and J. D. Woolner (1993). Recent notable bird records from Bangladesh. Forktail 9:13–44. Close ) and in SE in Jan 1997, but latter forest patch has since been cleared (6 Thompson, P. M., and D. L. Johnson (2003). Further notable bird records from Bangladesh. Forktail 19:85–102. Close ); fairly common in SE Asia, but no records in Cambodia between 1944 and 1996 (7 Goes, F. (1999). Notes on selected bird species in Cambodia. Forktail 15:25–27. Close ). Occurs in numerous protected areas, e.g. Indira Gandhi and Periyar National Parks, Parambikulam (8 Kannan, R. (1998). Avifauna of the Animalai Hills (Western Ghats) of southern India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 95(2): 193–214. Close ), Peechi Vazhani (4 Santharam, V. (1998). Drumming frequency in woodpeckers. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 95(3): 506-507. Close ) and Purna Wildlife Sanctuaries (2 Trivedi, P. and Soni, V.C. (2006). Significant bird records and local extinctions in Purna and Ratanmahal Wildlife Sanctuaries, Gujarat, India. Forktail. 22: 39–48. Close ), and Thunakadavu Reserve (India), Khao Yai, Nam Nao and Kaeng Krachan National Parks (Thailand) and Nam Bai Cat Tien National Park (Vietnam).