Female © Julien Lamouroux
Male © Holger Teichmann
Male © Holger Teichmann
Female © Oliver Fowler

Cardinal Woodpecker Dendropicos fuscescens

Sign in to see your badges

Identification

POWERED BY MERLIN

A small, compact woodpecker with heavily streaked underparts and a solid black moustachial streak. In the female the top of the head is completely dark, while in the male the forecrown is brown and hindcrown and nape are red. Pairs inhabit a wide range of savanna, woodland, forest-edge, and riverine forest, where they feed in dead branches and smaller twigs ignored by larger woodpeckers. An angry-sounding, dry, trilled rattle call often gives it away.

POWERED BY MERLIN