Checker-throated Woodpecker Chrysophlegma mentale Scientific name definitions

A mid-sized woodpecker, the beautiful Checker-throated Woodpecker is moss green with blood-red neck and wings, a bright-yellow nape, and a black-and-white-checkered throat. It occurs in lowland forests (more rarely in second growth), where it often joins mixed-species flocks from southernmost Myanmar across the Thai-Malay Peninsula, as well as on Sumatra, Borneo, and Java in the Greater Sundas. The population on Java is recognized as a separate taxon, differing from the nominate in its throat pattern and crest color, which have occasionally been considered grounds for recognizing it as a separate species.

Although the species’ habitat requirements are well known (occurring at much lower densities in commercially logged and plantation forests as opposed to primary forest), almost nothing of the breeding biology and other facets of its life history are known. The Checker-throated Woodpecker is split into two species by BirdLife International, both of which are considered Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List due to ongoing forest loss throughout their ranges.