Red-rumped Woodpecker Dryobates kirkii Scientific name definitions

This small woodpecker has a diagnostic red rump, but the red is often difficult to see behind folded wings. The Red-rumped Woodpecker is a resident of both dry and wet areas including moist forests, second growth, mangroves, gallery forests, woodlands, plantations, and cultivated areas. They usually prefer open areas at middle or high heights, and frequently forage among dense foliage for insects. Individuals or pairs can often be seen amongst mixed-species flocks.

c. 15–16 cm; 30–42 g. Male  has buffish forehead, lores and superciliary area, dusky brown or dark grey crown and nape with red feather tips, golden-yellow lower nape  to upper neck side; olive-brown ear-coverts with whitish shaft streaks, whitish chin and throat barred dark olive; golden olive-brown upperparts with paler yellow shaft streaks (often obscure), sometimes some red feather edges and tips, rump and uppertail-coverts bright crimson-red; wing-coverts with pale buff wedge-shaped spots, reddish tips, mostly on medians; dark brown flight-feathers broadly edged greenish-olive, broadest on secondaries and tertials, pale bars on inner webs of primaries and secondaries; uppertail dark brown, paler outer feathers barred pale buff; entirely barred olive-brown and whitish below  , pale bars becoming broader in belly region, underwing barred dark brown and whitish; longish bill straight, broad across nostrils, blackish, paler lower mandible; iris dark brown to red-brown, occasionally paler orbital ring; legs dark greyish, tinged green to blue. Differs from V. chocoensis in red rump, less yellow nape, less patterned face, narrower pale bars below. Female lacks red on head, has crown dark brown with green tinges. Juvenile resembles adult, but both sexes have red tips on crown, female less extensively. Race monticola is large as nominate or larger, with heavy blackish barring below; <em>continentalis</em> is smaller, with more yellow on nape, and pale bars below broader; <em>cecilii</em> is smaller than previous, with paler chin and upper throat less patterned, wing-coverts less spotted, tail more barred; neglectus is usually brighter above and darker below than last, tending to lack spots on wing-coverts.

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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.

Variety of lowland and foothill habitats, from wet forest, adjacent second growth and overgrown clearings, edge of mangroves, to gallery forest, xerophytic areas, dry deciduous forest, tall open woodland, savanna, coconut (Cocos nucifera) plantations, cemeteries. Tends to favour rather open habitats. To 900 m in Panama; to 1000 m in W Venezuela, and to 1500–1750 m in tepuis S of R Orinoco; to c. 1200 m in Ecuador but below 300 m in NW (N Esmeraldas); to 1500 m in Peru.

Larvae and adults of small to medium-sized wood-boring beetles and other insects. Usually forages singly or in pairs, or in small groups; joins mixed-species flocks. Mainly in mid-levels and canopy of forest, coming lower only in adjacent second growth and clearings; visits trees at forest borders, but rarely ventures outside forest; inconspicuous. Forages on trunks to smaller branches , often among thick foliage. Pecking and hammering are frequently used techniques; hammers steadily.

Nasal “keer” , decreasing in intensity, softer than similar note of Piculus simplex, recalling kiskadee (Pitangus) or even Colaptes rubiginosus; mewing “wih” or “kwee” in shorter or longer ventriloquial series of up to 16 notes, becoming louder at end, sometimes with weak throaty “yuk” or “yk” added; also repeated “kee-yik kee-yik”. Drumming rapid, noisy, often prolonged.

Dec–Feb, possibly Mar, in Panama and in Trinidad and Tobago, and Feb–Mar in N Venezuela; Jul in Ecuador, where pair with immature seen in Oct (2 Mischler, T. (2012). Status, abundance, seasonality, breeding evidence and an updated list of the birds of Cerro Blanco, Guayaquil, Ecuador. Cotinga 34:60–72. Close ); also, birds in breeding condition in Jan and Sept in Colombia and Ecuador. Nest-hole 3–8 m up in living tree or palm, even slender one, often at edge of forest; hole diameter 5 cm, cavity depth 35 cm. Clutch 2–3 eggs. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Fairly common to uncommon. Uncommon to locally fairly common in Ecuador, where widespread in N lowlands; apparently no recent records from SW (Loja). Fairly common at Campo Verde (Peru). Occurs in Salamanca National Park (Colombia), Henri Pittier National Park (Venezuela), Tinalandia Natural Reserve (Ecuador) and Tumbes National Reserve (Peru). Generally inconspicuous, possibly overlooked, but presence often revealed by sound of its frequent pecking and hammering.