Sunday, January 31, 2010

Mégapic de Gray, the Powerful Woodpecker

Originally posted 6/17/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.


The illustration above is Plate V. from Alfred Mahlerbe's Monographie des Picidées. It depicts a family group consisting of a male Powerful Woodpecker in left, foreground, a female in the background and a male juvenile bird.

Here is an excerpt listing various names for the Powerful Woodpecker from the 1868 publication entitled List of the Specimens of Birds in the Collection of the British Museum by George Robert Gray, creator of the Campephilus genus, et al.  It is available here at Google books. 


The bird image above is within the public domain and it appears here courtesy of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York.

2 comments:

Richard King said...

I love woodpeckers. I saw quite a few in Borneo lately, including the bird I had hoped for years to see there, the Great Slaty Woodpecker. 4 birds, with a female drinking water from a hollow close by.

Bill Benish said...

Congratulations on seeing the Great Slaty Woodpecker, another amazing, large member of the woodpecker family!