Brown-fronted Woodpecker Dendrocoptes auriceps Scientific name definitions

19–20 cm; 37–50 g. Male has dull brown to yellow-brown forehead and forecrown, yellower mid-crown, orange-red nape patch , black hindneck; rest of head white, grey-brown feather tips forming darker patch on ear-coverts, narrow brown-grey malar stripe becoming broader and black at rear, continuing to upper breast side; white chin and throat tinged brown or grey; black upperparts barred white on mantle and back, wing-coverts broadly tipped white; brownish-black flight-feathers barred white; uppertail black, outer feathers barred white; white below, lower breast and flanks tinged yellow, becoming pink or orange on central belly and undertail-coverts, broad black streaks on breast becoming paler and narrower on lower underparts, belly sometimes plain; medium-long bill slightly chisel-tipped, culmen barely curved, slate-grey to bluish, paler base of lower mandible; iris red-brown to red; legs grey-green to slate-grey. Distinguished from Dendrocopos macei by shorter bill, yellow crown, and heavier streaking on whiter underparts; from L. mahrattensis also by slightly larger size, duller crown colour, darker malar, and red undertail-coverts. Female differs from male in head pattern, has crown duller yellow, occasionally with hint of orange, sometimes greener, this colour continuing to nape, also duller red eyes. Juvenile duller than adult, with browner ear-coverts, is greyer below with paler pink vent, both sexes with crown as adult female’s or sometimes streaked, male with trace of red in hindcrown, female with orange or yellow.

NC Pakistan (N Baluchistan), and W Himalayas from NE Afghanistan (Nuristan) E to N India and Nepal (2 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2012). Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Volumes 1 and 2. Second edition. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Michigan State University and Lynx Edicions, Washington, DC, Michigan, MI, and Barcelona, Spain. Close ).

Insects and their larvae, mainly lepidopteran caterpillars, grubs. Commonly takes vegetable matter, including fruits, berries and pine seeds; possibly sap. Forages singly or in pairs; often joins mixed flocks of tits (Paridae) and minivets (Pericrocotus). Foraging mostly confined to trees and bushes, rarely visits ground. Main techniques gleaning and probing ; also hammers.

Call “chick” or “peek”, more squeaky than that of Dendrocopos himalayensis, resembling call of D. hyperythrus; also “chitter-chitter-chitter-r-r-rh” or “cheek-cheek-cheek-rrrr”, recalling a kingfisher (Alcedinidae). Drums frequently in breeding season.