- Veniliornis callonotus
Identification
13 cm.
Male
- Extensively red tipped forehead to nape
- Greyish-brown ear-coverts
- White rest of face, often brown or at least dirty white on rear neck side; sometimes a hint of a thin dark malar line
- Brownish-scarlet upperparts, often with some brown feather bases showing
- Dark brown or blackish-brown flight-feathers, reddish on secondaries and tertials
- Blackish-brown uppertail, whitish-yellow outer feathers barred black
- White underparts with some pale buff wash
- Long, yellowish bill, darker at base
- Greenish-grey legs
- major with darker ear-coverts and a pale band behind and below, also more dark vermiculations below
Female
- Black forehead to nape (with some white feathers at rear
Juveniles are heavily mottled with olive or greyish above and buffish-white below.
Distribution
Southwestern Colombia, western Ecuador, and northwestern Peru.
Fairly common in most parts of its range. Apparent range extension in Ecuador in the last decades, presumably as a result of deforestation in more humid areas.
Taxonomy
Two subspecies recognized:
- V. c. callonotus in southwestern Colombia (Nariño) and northwestern Ecuador (south to Guayas, El Oro)
- V. c. major in southwestern Ecuador (El Oro and Loja) and northwestern Peru
Many birds with intermediate appearance between nominate and major in southwestern Ecuador.
Habitat
Forests and dry shrubland.
Occurs in lowlands up to 1000 m, locally higher.
Behaviour
Diet
No details of diet known.
Forages in trees, often on small branches and thin twigs. Usually in pairs.
Breeding
Poorly known. Breeding behaviour recorded in July and August.
Movements
This is a resident species.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2015. IOC World Bird Names (version 5.2). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2015)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Scarlet-backed Woodpecker. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 4 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Scarlet-backed_Woodpecker
