Megapic de Guatemala, the Pale-billed Woodpecker

Originally posted 9/24/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Megapic de Guatemala, the Pale-billed Woodpecker, receives excellent treatment in this hand-colored lithograph by Delahaye in Alfred Malherbe's Monographie des picidées (1859-1862).  The two female birds show some black on their crown and forehead.  The others are all male birds.  Seeing all those pale-bills together reminds me that this bird has also been referred to as the Guatemalan Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

The Pale-billed Woodpecker ranges from Mexico to western Panama.  I noticed that the Internet Bird Collection now includes maps that show where contributed photos, sound and video were captured for individual bird species. As a nice example, check out the map in the entry on the Pale-billed Woodpecker at this link.

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