Three Species of Campephilus Woodpeckers - Crimson-crested, Guayaquil, and Pale-billed Woodpeckers by George F. Sandström

Illustration by George F. Sandström, © Delaware Museum of Natural History

Enjoy this remarkable illustration by George F. Sandström of three species of woodpeckers within the Campephilus genus which appears on Plate 81 of Woodpeckers of the World by Lester L. Short, published by the Delaware Museum of Natural History (1982). The two birds at the upper portion of the illustration are a male Crimson-crested Woodpecker (on the left) and a female Crimson-crested Woodpecker (n the right). The male of this species looks very similar to the two species depicted at the bottom of the illustration - a male Pale-billed Woodpecker (on the left) and a male Guayaquil Woodpecker.

You can find detailed profiles of two of the three species at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birds of the World site at these links:

Crimson-crested Woodpecker

Pale-billed Woodpecker

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

Two Woodpeckers, in Mexico

Originally posted 1/4/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

 

UPDATE:  After posting this photo, a friend of mine expressed doubt that the topmost bird is a Lineated Woodpecker.  For example, the tail feathers much more closely resemble those of a Pale-billed Woodpecker.  Also, the white markings on lineateds do not typically come together in the "V" shape apparent here on the bird's back whereas they do meet like that in pale-bills.   So, based on appearance alone, I'd call both of these birds as pale-bills.  In corresponding with John Lofgreen, he maintains that he did indeed observe and capture a Lineated Woodpecker as the upper bird in this image.   In any event, it's an interesting and pleasing image that I'm grateful to have here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is another photo that is extraordinary because it includes two species of woodpeckers that are rarely photographed together.   The Pale-billed Woodpecker belongs to the Campephilus genus.   The Lineated Woodpecker belongs to the Dryocopus genus (the same genus that Pileated and Black Woodpeckers belong to). These two birds look similar and so are confusion species.  It is not uncommon to see each bird listed as the other species on photos posted on the web.

Many thanks to John Lofgreen of Anchorage, Alaska for sharing this photo here.  He almost caught a third woodpecker species with these two!  As he wrote:

This is another photo from Singayta. The lower bird on the left, is a Pale-billed Woodpecker. The upper bird is a Lineated Woodpecker. This was the last photo on that roll of film. While I was changing rolls, a Golden-cheeked Woodpecker landed next to them, but all three birds were gone before I was ready to shoot again. What a photo it would have been.

 John is a published wildlife artist.  You can find more of his beautiful work here:

 at his site John Lofgreen Wildlife Art and at his blog  The Life of a Painter

Singayta is a good bird watching location close to San Blas, Nayarit on the west coast of Mexico.

http://www.singayta.com/

Pale-billed Woodpecker at Cavity - Video

Originally posted 12/16/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

I recently came across this video clip of superb quality.   Posted by Naturalidades, it shows a male Pale-billed Woodpecker working on a cavity in the Guanacaste Conservation Area of Costa Rica.  Press play, then change the setting at the lower right of the video box from 360p to 480p to watch it at higher resolution.

It's worth turning the volume up at your end to hear the bill tapping as it works.  The bird pauses every few seconds to keep as close an eye on its surroundings as possible. 

Read more about Area de Conservación Guanacaste here

Pale-billed Woodpecker in Costa Rica

Originally posted 5/17/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Costa Rica, originally uploaded by L. Kay.

This photo of a male Pale-billed Woodpecker is @ L. Kay and posted here with permission. The bird is depicted here with sharp detail and in excellent color. The photo was taken at the Villa Lapas Lodge in Costa Rica.

Thanks to L. Kay and to all of the contributors to this blog for sharing their wonderful photography here!

Pale-billed Woodpecker Alighting on Tree in Costa Rica

Originally posted 5/2/13 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Untitled, a photo by mistercakes on Flickr.

Here is a male Pale-billed Woodpecker coming in for a landing in a uniquely interesting and dynamic photo that mistercakes took at Hacienda Beru in Costa Rica. It is posted here with permission.

Talking with a Pale-billed Woodpecker

Originally posted 5/15/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Back in November of last year, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO) released this fascinating 10+ minute video entitled Talking with a Pale-billed Woodpecker. One of several excellent bird videos by CLO, it is available in 1080p HD (you may need to adjust your settings to see it in HD) and takes you on a hike through a Costa Rican rain forest in search of the Pale-billed Woodpecker. Researchers Martjan Lammertink and Chris Saker utilized a wooden box especially designed to simulate the double-knock sound that Pale-billed Woodpeckers and other members of the Campephilus genus use as a communication signal.

Watch how the bird rewards their efforts to draw it closer to them using the double-knocker by flying into the area and then doing its own series of double-knocks in response to what it has heard. It's also quite nice to be able to watch a male Pale-billed Woodpecker emerge from its roost in the beautiful forest in Costa Rica at dawn (all in HD video, so great viewed at full screen size), without having to get up that early!

 

Pale-billed Woodpecker in Early Morning

Originally posted 5/15/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Pale-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus guatemalensis), originally uploaded by Scott Olmstead.

Here's a very nice photo of a Pale-billed Woodpecker @ Scott Olmstead and posted here with permission. You can see more of his wonderful photography at this link.  He writes:

This bird, the female, had just emerged from her nest cavity in a rotten trunk.
La Selva Biological Station, Heredia, Costa Rica. March 18, 2010. Digiscoped with a
Canon Powershot A590 IS through a Swarovski ATS 65 HD with a 20-60x eyepiece
and the Swarovski DCA Zoom.

Pale-billed Woodpecker

Originally posted 4/7/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Pale-billed Woodpecker, originally uploaded by Podoces.

Here is a nice photo of a male Pale-billed Woodpecker to follow up on my last post of a photo of a female bird of the same species. The male's entire head is red. This photo is © Matt Brady (aka Podoces) and posted here with his permission.

You can hear a Pale-billed Woodpecker's signature double knock, recorded March 3, 2010
here at this link at Xeno-Canto.

Pale-billed Woodpecker at Nest Cavity

Here's a recently posted 2 minute video of a female Pale-billed Woodpecker at her nest cavity in Honduras, followed by her mate.  It provides us with a great look at the black forecrown and black center of the crown, features that distinguish this bird from the male whose entire head is red.  Check out the huge beetle larva she's got in her bill at 45 secs. into the clip!  After that, her handsome mate arrives with another larva to do his part in raising their young.

I favor the Neotropical Bird site's profile of the Pale-billed Woodpecker, and here is a link to the Life History page with details on the bird's diet, etc.:

Read more here.

Pale-billed Woodpecker on Tree Trunk

Originally posted 6/4/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Pale billed Woodpecker, originally uploaded by tamandu.

Here is an excellent photo of a male Pale-billed Woodpecker © tamandu and posted here with permission.

Woodpeckers within the Campephilus genus display morphology that is well-adapted to dealing with the challenges involved with large birds clinging to vertical surfaces.  This photo provides a great illustration of the typical Campephilus posture that is detailed in the book Woodpeckers of North America by Frances Backhouse, ( a personal favorite of mine).  Here is a brief excerpt of those details:

Campephilus woodpeckers unfold their legs and extend them sideways, as if hugging the tree...The advantage of the Campephilus posture becomes evident if you think about a mountain climber on a narrow ledge. Her most secure stance is with arms outstretched to the sides and her body close to the cliff - essentially the [Campephilus] woodpecker pose.

Find more info about the book Woodpeckers of North America here.

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.

Request for Photos for a New Book

Originally posted 4/02/11 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Pale-billed Woodpecker, originally uploaded by Dick Tipton.

Gerard Gorman has put out a call for submissions of top-class photos of woodpeckers from anyone who would like to be involved in a new book provisionally entitled Woodpeckers of the World: a photographic guide. if interested, please visit his Woodpeckers of the World blog and view submission details on the upper left sidebar.

Go to Woodpeckers of the World

The photo you see above is of a juvenile Pale-billed Woodpecker. It's extraordinary because it's rare to find photos of young birds in this genus. Dick Tipton took this photo at the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Southern Mexico on Feb 10, 2008.

Find more info on the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve here.

Paie-billed Woodpecker in Mexico

Originally posted 2/19/11 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

pale-billed woodpecker, originally uploaded by qmnonic.

This photo of a male Pale-billed Woodpecker was taken by Matt MacGillivray in a forest south of Manzanillo, Mexico and is posted here under Creative Commons license. It's got good bokeh!

Pale-billed Woodpecker, female

Originally posted 6/6/11 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Pale-billed Woodpecker, a photo by Bird Brian on Flickr.

The black forecrown and center crown of this Pale-billed Woodpecker are distinctive features of females of this species. Photo posted here under Creative Commons license.

Pale-billed Woodpecker

Pale-billed Woodpecker, originally uploaded by Maciek StL.

And here is photo of a Pale-billed Woodpecker.  This bird is a male since its head is completely red.  Creative Commons licensed photo.

Pale-billed Woodpecker in Costa Rica

Originally posted 5/8/11 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Pale-billed woodpecker (Campephilus guatemalensis) - a female I think, originally uploaded by LPJC.

Here's a nice view of a Pale-billed Woodpecker in Costa Rica, in a photo © LPJC and posted here with permission. Apparently, it's a female given that bit of black that's visible on the bird's crown.

You can find a detailed species account for the Pale-billed Woodpecker here:

Neotropical Birds

Pale-billed Woodpecker

Pale-billed Woodpecker, originally uploaded by Jorge Montejo.

Here's a photo of a handsome male Pale-billed Woodpecker.  Creative commons licensed photo.

Pale-billed Woodpecker

IMG_167 Pale-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus guatemalensis), La Selva, Costa Rica ., originally uploaded by Lathers.

Many thanks to Lathers on Flickr for granting permission to post his photo of a male Pale-billed Woodpecker here. 

Pale-billed Woodpecker

BZ10_C50D_1136a, originally uploaded by jerryoldenettel.

Here's another photo of a female Pale-billed Woodpecker. The sex of this bird is indicated by the black forecrown and black center crown amidst brilliant red feathers. I'm always amazed when I see Campephilus woodpeckers out in the open, in such a stark setting, when I consider the dense bottomland forest that their northern relative, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker has called home!

Creative Commons licensed photo taken in Belize.

Pale-billed Woodpecker

Belize - Pale-billed Woodpecker, originally uploaded by billy3001.

To me, the stare of this bird reminds me of the intense wonder that I felt at the first glimpse I ever had of a live Campephilus woodpecker, in the Mountain Ridge Pine forest in Belize.