Monday, March 31, 2014

Illustration of female Magellanic and Cream-backed Woodpeckers by George F. Sanström


Here is another splendid illustration by George F. Sandström of two woodpeckers within the Campephilus genus which appears on Plate 82 of Woodpeckers of the World by Lester L. Short, published by the Delaware Museum of Natural History (1982).  

On the left is a female Magellanic Woodpecker. And on the right is a female Cream-backed Woodpecker. It is a somewhat whimsical illustration because the ranges of these two species does not overlap so that you would never see them together in the wild. Here is the range info for each species from Woodpeckers of the World along with links to their range maps:

Magellanic Woodpecker - Found in temperate forests of southern South America from central eastern Chile and central western Argentina southward along the Andes Mountains and the Chilean lowlands to Tierra del Fuego. Habitat mature southern beech and southern beech-cypress forests from timberline to the coast wherever suitable habitat exists.


Cream-backed Woodpecker - South-central South America from north-central Bolivia (Cochabamba) south through western and central Paraguay to La Rioja, Córdoba, and Entre Rios, Argentina, and to westernmost Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Its range includes all of the chaco (xeric) woodlands, including its extension toward Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay, subtropical forests of Tucumán and La Rioja, and dry valleys of Bolivia to an elevation of at least 5600 feet (Chilon, Santa Cruz, near Cochabamba border).  

 
This illustration is posted here pursuant to permission obtained from the publisher.