Sulawesi Pygmy Woodpecker Yungipicus temminckii Scientific name definitions

13–14 cm. Male has buff-brown lower forehead, dark brown upper forehead and crown with grey feather bases, in worn plumage appearing streaked; narrow red napeband (red often lacking on central nape); narrow white supercilium from front edge of eye to nape side, dark brown ear-coverts (grey-streaked when worn); broad white cheekband expanding on neck side, often extending to central hindneck; brown malar stripe thinly barred white; dull, pale greyish-brown chin and throat, sometimes extensively marked with off-white; olive-brown upperparts sometimes tinged green, barred very pale brownish white; whitish rump barred dark brown, occasionally pale yellowish white or unbarred; uppertail-coverts barred brown and white; dark brown wing-coverts and tertials with faint olive tinge, coverts tipped white, tertials barred white; darker brown primaries and secondaries barred white on both webs; uppertail brown, buffish or buff-white bars of variable width; pale buffish olive to yellowish grey below, broadly streaked brown or olive-brown, lower underparts paler and more narrowly streaked; undertail paler than above, usually with slight yellowish wash; longish bill pointed, culmen slightly curved, black, greyer base of lower mandible; iris red to light brown; legs olive-green. Female has no red on nape. Juvenile browner, with barring above and streaking below less prominent.

This species, along with P. kizuki, P. maculatus, P. ramsayi, P. canicapillus, P. nanus and P. moluccensis, was previously placed in Dendrocopos, but molecular studies indicate that they all form a separate clade of very small species, evidently sister to the P. tridactylus clade (1 Weibel, A. C., and W. S. Moore (2002). A test of a mitochondrial gene-based phylogeny of woodpeckers (genus Picoides) using an independent nuclear gene, β-Fibrinogen intron 7. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 22:247–257. Close , 2 Winkler, H., A. Gamauf, F. Nittinger, and E. Haring (2014). Relationships of Old World woodpeckers (Aves: Picidae) – new insights and taxonomic implications. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 116:69–86. Close ); all seven have been combined in Yungipicus by some authors. Populations in S and uplands tend to be somewhat larger than those in N and lowlands, but no grounds for racial subdivision. Monotypic.

Wooded areas, including secondary forest, riparian woodland, orange and coffee plantations in cultivated lowlands, large trees along roadsides, and gardens; also in deforested hills and at edges of primary montane forest, at up to 2300 m.

Resident and sedentary.

Details of diet not known; thought to be similar to that of P. maculatus. Spends most of its time high up in treetops .

Sharp “tirr-tirr”; also rapid , thin “geegeegeegeegeegeegee”. Drums.

Drumming and copulations recorded in Aug; probably breeds also early in year. Nest-hole in dead tree, preferentially rainforest tree (Pithecolobium) but also e.g. mango (Mangifera indica), or in dead branch. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Not uncommon within its range. Occurs in Lore Lindu, Dumoga-Bone and Rawa Aopa National Parks, and Manembonembo and Tangkoko Nature Reserves; common in Gunung Ambang Nature Reserve in NE Sulawesi. Seems to be fairly adaptable. Previous listing for Togian Is is now considered erroneous (3 Indrawan, M., S. Somadikarta, J. Supriatna, M. D. Bruce, Sunarto, and G. Djanubudiman (2006). The birds of the Togian Islands, central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Forktail 22:7–22. Close ).