Bar-bellied Woodpecker (Dryobates nigriceps)

Identification & Behavior: ~17 cm (6.6 in). The Bar-bellied Woodpecker has olive-brown upperparts. The underparts are barred. The male has a red forehead, crown, and nape. The female lacks the red in the head. It forages alone or in pair in montane forests of low stature,  scrub and also in isolated humid scrub surrounded by grasslands near treeline, often close to the ground. It ranges at higher elevations than the similar Little Woodpecker and Red-stained Woodpecker.

Status: The Bar-bellied Woodpecker is uncommon in montane forest and scrub of the east slope of the Andes where it ranges at elevations ranging between 2400-3500 m. It also occurs in Co, Ec, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Carpintero de Vientre Barrado.

Sub-species: Bar-bellied Woodpecker (Veniliornis nigriceps equifasciatus), Chapman 1912. Extreme N Andes of Peru.
(V. n. pectoralis), Berlepsch and Stolzmann 1902.  Most of the Andes of Peru.
(V. n. nigriceps), d’Orbigny 1840.Extreme southern Peru.

Meaning of Name: Veniliornis: Related to the genus Venilia (Bonaparte, 1850); and ornis= bird. nigriceps: L. nigri=niger, black and ceps=head.

See more of the Family Picidae