Photo © by Stanley Jones
Garden of Celeste Mountain Lodge, Bijugua, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica. July 2023
- Dryobates fumigatus
Identification
A small (18cm, 7in.) woodpecker with no barring or conspicuous marks; best identification is overall dark, drab, brown plumage. Male has dark red crown, lacking in female.
Distribution
Numerous and widespread in foothills and subtropical forests in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy
Placed in genus Leuconotopicus by Gill and Donsker. Formerly included in genus Picoides
Subspecies
Five subspecies are recognized[1]:
- D. f. oleagineus:
- Lowlands and foothills of eastern Mexico
- D. f. sanguinolentus:
- Central and southern Mexico to western Panama
- D. f. fumigatus:
- D. f. obscuratus:
- D. f. reichenbachi:
- North Venezuela
Habitat
Forested and woodland areas of foothills and mountains in parts of the range reaching near sea level in Mexico.
Behaviour
Forages on branches, rather than trunks, tapping and probing methodically in live and dead wood for insects.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Paper describing DNA taxonomy of among others this species
- SACC proposal to move this species to genus Picoides
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Smoky-brown Woodpecker. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 3 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Smoky-brown_Woodpecker
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
