Reichenow's Woodpecker Campethera scriptoricauda Scientific name definitions

c. 22 cm. Male has red forehead to nape, forehead with small grey feather bases, white supercilium, dark stripe behind eye, dark-streaked ear-coverts, red malar stripe with scattered black feather bases; white neck side, chin and throat all spotted black; upperparts barred dark olive, yellow and white, wing-coverts more spotted; brown flight-feathers barred yellowish-white on inner webs; uppertail barred yellow and brown; underparts pale yellowish-white with large rounded dark spots, ventral region usually plainer; underwing as above or paler; medium-length bill slightly curved, narrow between nostrils, slaty-grey, lower mandible mostly pale yellow or yellow-green; iris red, orbital skin grey; legs bluish-green to grey-green. Differs from very similar C. bennettii in slightly smaller size, shorter wing, dark eyestripe and ear-coverts, black-spotted chin and throat, larger spots below, yellow lower mandible. Female differs from male in pale-spotted black forehead and crown, white moustachial area, streaky black malar. Juvenile resembles female, but more spotted above, spots below more diffuse.

Inland E & S Tanzania S to S Malawi (S to Nsanje area) and C Mozambique; recorded also at base of Mt Kilimanjaro, in N Tanzania.

Frequent “churr” notes  and chattering series, very like those of C. bennettii.