Red-crowned Woodpecker Melanerpes rubricapillus Scientific name definitions

Red-crowned Woodpeckers are residents of both arid and moist habitats including coastal and desert scrub, dry forests, humid forest edges, second growth, deciduous forests, plantations, urban parks, and other cultivated areas. In areas with full wooded coverage, they are more likely to be found at higher levels, while in more open areas, they tend to come to lower levels. In regions where this woodpecker overlaps with the Black-cheeked Woodpecker (Melanerpes pucherani), the Black-cheeked is dominant in wooded areas. Red-crowned Woodpeckers forage individually or in pairs at all levels of the forest, searching for insects, fruit, or even taking nectar from flowers. Both males and females drum and give hard rattling calls. Among their common nesting sites are cacti, fence posts, and trees. Pairs stay together year-round but sleep individually in holes.

c. 16–18·5 cm; 40–65 g. Male has pale yellow nasal tufts and lower forehead, whitish upper forehead, bright red crown becoming more orange-red on nape and hindneck (some with grey-brown nape); rest of head greyish-buff, lores, side of forecrown and chin paler, rarely with faint yellow on chin, lores and malar region; black mantle, scapulars and back barred white, white lower back to uppertail-coverts; black upperwing and wing-coverts barred white, browner primaries tipped white (when fresh) with bars only at bases and forming white patch; uppertail black, central feather pair white with black spots at tip, outer pair barred white on outer webs; variable below, typically buffish-grey to grey-buff, sometimes darker, washed olive or yellowish (when fresh), paler in lower regions, central belly diffusely reddish to orange-red, lower flanks to undertail-coverts barred black; underwing brown, barred white, white patch at base of primaries; undertail brownish-black, outer feathers washed yellow, markings as above; longish bill slightly chisel-tipped, culmen curved, fairly broad across nostrils, blackish; iris red to brown, orbital skin grey-brown; legs grey. Differs from M. pygmaeus in patterning of face and underparts, and in shorter tail; from M. hoffmannii in smaller size, darker coloration, reddish (not golden) nape and belly patch. Female has slightly shorter bill than male, crown pale grey-buff to whitish, nape and hindneck reddish to orange-red. Juvenile duller and browner, nape and hindneck paler or yellowish, bars above less contrasting, underparts often slightly streaked, belly patch paler and usually mottled, male with red on crown duller, female with dark crown often barred and occasionally with some reddish tips. Race subfusculus is marginally smaller than nominate, typically much darker below, breast and sides deep grey-brown; seductus is shorter-winged, has breast a shade darker, female has more red on nape; paraguanae is longer-tailed, has paler yellow on forehead, buff-brown nape, yellower hindneck, white bars above broader, belly patch more golden-yellow, female with nape and hindneck pale orange-brown.

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• Red-crowned x Hoffmann's Woodpecker (hybrid) Melanerpes rubricapillus x hoffmannii

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.

Deciduous forest, edge, clearings, second growth, coastal scrub, plantations, gardens, also mangroves. Replaced by M. pucherani in more wooded areas. Lowlands to 1700 m; to 1900 m in N Venezuela.

Resident.

Diet includes ants, beetles, grubs, Orthoptera, other small insects, also spiders; wood-boring larvae of minor importance. Also eats many fruits and berries, including papayas (Carica), cashews and bananas; visits balsa flowers for nectar. Generally less dependent on arthropods than e.g. M. hoffmannii. Observed frequently in pairs. Forages at various heights, with preference for middle and lower levels. Feeding techniques include hammering into bark, probing, gleaning from trunks, branches and foliage, and reaching for fruits; pierces the skin of larger fruits to obtain contents. Readily takes fruit from feeders. Larger items are secured in crevice and processed by pecking.

Typical calls often wavering and protracted with abrupt terminal note, e.g. “churr, churr, krr-r-r-r”, also various other calls, e.g. “wícka, wícka” in display, similar to those of M. carolinus and M. hoffmannii; chattering calls like those of Boat-billed Flycatcher (Megarhynchus pitangua). Both sexes drum during breeding season, rolls slower than in M. carolinus; mutual tapping at nest-hole.

Feb–Jul in Costa Rica and Panama, May–Jun in Colombia, May–Nov in Venezuela and Mar–Jul on Tobago; sometimes double-brooded. Monogamous, in pairs throughout year; solitary breeder. Nest-hole excavated by both sexes, 3–23 m up in slender dead tree or branch, or in large cactus or sometimes fence post, or may use roost-hole of male; territorial, but nest-hole often lost in competition with M. chrysauchen and tityras (Tityra). Clutch 3–4 eggs, but usually only 2 young reared; incubation 10 days, by both sexes, only male at night; chicks fed and brooded by both parents, fledging period 31–33 days; fledglings cared for by parents for c. 1 month.

Not globally threatened. A common and conspicuous woodpecker, widespread within its range. Common to abundant in Costa Rica and Panama; common in Colombia; common in Venezuela and on Tobago. Occurs in Manuel Antonio and Corcovado National Parks (Costa Rica), and Henri Pittier and Morrocoy National Parks (Venezuela). May benefit from forest clearance; numbers tend to increase in areas where thinning and clearance creates more open woodland. Is considered a nuisance locally in plantations and gardens because of its fruit-eating habits.