Red-stained Woodpecker (Dryobates affinis)

Identification & Behavior: ~18 cm (7 in).  The Red-stained Woodpecker has olive-brown upperparts. The underparts are barred. The male has a red crown and nape. The female lacks red in the head.  Both sexes show “red stains” on the wing coverts and lack a prominent malar streak. It forages individually or alone in mixed-species foraging flocks or away from them. Similar to Little Woodpecker, but distinguished by a lack of a conspicuous malar streak and superciliary line and by being restricted to canopy and sub-canopy of mature pristine forest.

Status: The Red-stained Woodpecker is uncommon to rare in the canopy and sub-canopy of Amazonian forests. It is known to range up to 1400 m along the foothill of the Andes. It also occurs in Co, Ec, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Carpintero Teñido de Rojo.

Sub-species: Red-stained Woodpecker (Veniliornis affinis hilaris), Cabanis and Heine 1863.

Meaning of Name: Veniliornis: Related to the genus Venilia (Bonaparte, 1850) and ornis= bird. affinis: L. affinae, affine, affinis= similar, related.

See more of the Family Picidae