Male Guayaquil Woodpecker

Originally posted 4/10/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Photo © Dubi Shapiro

I'm very grateful to Dubi Shapiro who shares this fantastic photo of a male Guayaquil Woodpecker with us, photographed at Milpe Reserve, Choco region.Ecuador on January 15, 2009. Dubi has a remarkable collection of wildlife photography that is most definitely worth a look!

View Dubi Shapiro's photos here at pbase

Female Guayaquil Woodpecker in Ecuador

Originally posted 11/29/12 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Ecuador-2012-02-17-596, a photo by C&P_Pics on Flickr.

The Guayaquil Woodpecker is one of the relatively seldom photographed species within the Campephilus genus. Here we have a beautiful image of a female Guayaquil Woodpecker captured by Charles Cruze in Ecuador. This sex and species closely resembles the female Crimson-crested Woodpecker, but in the Guayaquil W. the white does not extend above the base of the bill the way it does in the other bird, and the entire head is red. The forecrown in female Crimson-crested W. is black.

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Guayaquil woodpecker

Guayaquil woodpecker, originally uploaded by joel n rosenthal.
Many thanks to Joel N. Rosenthal for granting permission to post this photo of a male Guayaquil Woodpecker.

Guayaquil Woodpecker in Flight

guayaquil in flight, originally uploaded by brodmann's 17.

It's quite rare to find photos of Campephilus woodpeckers in flight. Many thanks to brodmann's 17 from Flickr for granting permission to post this spectacular photo of a male Guayaquil Woodpecker here!

Guayaquil Woodpecker Video

Originally posted 10/29/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

In this brief video of a male Guayaquil Woodpecker at the Ayampe River in Ecuador, you'll observe it looking around and drumming.  This video by videoclientesm  includes a link in its description to a bird tour site called Sword Billed Expeditions.  Press play, then change the setting at the lower right of the video box from 360p to 480p to watch it at higher resolution.

Birds of Peru by Thomas S. Schulenberg describes the typical voice and drumming of this bird as follows:   

Call like that of Crimson-crested Woodpecker.  Drum is heavy, dying away at the end, 4-7 strikes.

Guayaquil & Red-necked Woodpecker Illustration

Originally posted 11/24/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

The large bird depicted in this hand-colored lithograph by Delahaye appears in Alfred Malherbe's Monographie des picidées (1859-1862).  It is a Guayaquil Woodpecker, listed here with its old name Mégapic de Sclater.  Curiously, the sex of the bird is noted as male, and that appears to be an error.  The male Guayaquil Woodpecker's head is entirely red, but for a small black and white patch below its ear.   The female Guayaquil Woodpecker possesses a white band extending from the base of its bill to its white neck stripe.

The two pairs of birds in this illustration are two subspecies of the Red-necked Woodpecker.  While most of the illustrations in this work are excellent, these do not quite capture the splendid appearance of this bird.  It must have proved very challenging to draw these relatively large birds to such a small scale!

This image within the public domain appears here courtesy of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Guayaquil Woodpecker

big redhead, originally uploaded by brodmann's 17.

Many thanks to brodmann's 17 from Flickr for granting permission to post this striking photo of a male Guayaquil Woodpecker here