Lita Woodpecker Piculus litae Scientific name definitions

The Lita Woodpecker lives in humid and wet forests and mature second growth in the lowlands and foothills of Colombia and Ecuador. Little is known about its basic life history, but it does forage by itself or in pairs in between the middle and canopy levels of the forest. Both males and females have a large yellow facial patch and a red head patch which extends to the crown on males.

c. 17–18 cm. Male has red forehead to hindneck, golden-yellow lores to ear-coverts and neck side, broad red malar with thin olive-yellow stripe below; dusky olive chin and throat with small white spots, appearing blackish in field; olive-yellow to bronze-green upperparts, including wing-coverts and tertials, yellower feather tips in fresh plumage, rump slightly darker; dark brown flight-feathers tipped black, outer webs edged olive, pale cinnamon-rufous area on inner webs; uppertail blackish, feathers edged greenish; whitish below with black wedge-shaped bars; underwing rufous, coverts paler; shortish bill pointed, culmen slightly curved, broad across nostrils, light bluish, black tip; iris dark brown; legs dark slate-blue. Distinguished from similar P. leucolaemus by smaller size, darker red on crown, more yellow on head, darker chin and throat. Female differs from male in having entire head  yellow apart from red nape and malar. Juvenile duller and greener than adult, without red malar or head top, less yellow on head side, streaked throat.

W Colombia (Pacific slope of N Andes, middle Magdalena Valley) S to NW Ecuador (S to NW Pichincha).

Hissing  “shreeyr” or “peessh”, very like that of P. leucolaemus and P. flavigula.