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Red-crowned Woodpecker | Melanerpes rubricapillus
Roodkruinspecht | Carpintero coronirrojo
The Red-crowned Woodpecker is a small Melanerpes woodpecker of southern Costa Rica and Panama that also occurs in South America. It is common at forest edges and in plantations, parks and gardens. In the guide area it replaces Hoffmann's Woodpecker in the south.
Voice
A rolling, often wavering series such as churr, churr, krr-r-r-r with an abrupt final note; in display a repeated wicka, wicka, and chattering calls.
Recording: Francisco contreras — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
16–18 cm. Forehead yellowish white. The male has a red crown and orange-red nape; in the female the crown is pale grey to off-white and only the nape is reddish. Cheeks, throat and underparts greyish buff, with a reddish to orange-red patch in the centre of the belly. Mantle and back barred black and white, rump white, flight feathers black with white bars.
Confusion species
Hoffmann's Woodpecker Melanerpes hoffmannii (further north in Costa Rica) has a yellow rather than red nape and a yellow belly patch; intermediate birds occur on the central Pacific slope of Costa Rica. Black-cheeked Woodpecker Melanerpes pucherani has a black patch around the eye and lives mainly in humid forest. Golden-naped Woodpecker Melanerpes chrysauchen has a golden-yellow nape and a black back with a white central stripe.
Habitat
Forest edges, secondary forest, dry and semi-open woodland, mangroves, pasture with trees, plantations, parks and gardens, from sea level to about 1700 m. It eats insects and fruit. Both adults excavate the nest hole in a trunk, a branch or a post.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Pacific slope of southern Costa Rica, roughly from the Parrita and Quepos area southwards, and nearly all of Panama in open and semi-open country, including the Pearl Islands. Outside the guide area through northern Colombia and Venezuela to Guyana and Suriname, and on Tobago.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Common in parks and gardens in Panama City, for example in Parque Natural Metropolitano, and in Costa Rica on the Osa Peninsula and around Golfito. The rolling call is often the first sign.
Conservation status
Not threatened. A common species that does well in secondary forest, plantations and gardens.
Scientific name
Melanerpes rubricapillus | (Cabanis, 1862)
Cabanis described the species in 1862 as Centurus rubricapillus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Melanerpes was introduced in 1832 by Swainson. Melanerpes is Greek, from melas 'black' and herpēs 'creeper': 'black creeper'. rubricapillus is Latin, from ruber 'red' and capillus 'hair (of the head)', after the red crown. The specimen the first description was based on came from Barranquilla, Colombia.