Illustration of Imperial Woodpeckers by George F. Sandström

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

It is my great pleasure to present you with this fantastic illustration of a pair of Imperial Woodpeckers that appears on Plate 84 of Woodpeckers of the World by Lester L. Short, published by the Delaware Museum of Natural History (1982).  

The book is a comprehensive account of the 198 species in the Picidae family that Short recognized, and it includes a total of 101 plates by artist George F. Sandström that portray these species in their natural colors with exquisite details. As Dean Amadon wrote in the preface:

The success of artist George Sandström's labors will be evident to anyone who leafs through the plates. They permit an efficient comparison of woodpeckers, particularly of closely related species, often grouped on the same or in adjacent plates, from all quarters of the globe; they are an integral part of this treatise.

Plates 79 through 84 depict the 11 species within the Campephilus genus. Eventually, I will post all of the illustrations from those plates here, pursuant to permission obtained from the publisher. It seemed fitting to start with the majestic Imperial Woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in the world!

Tim Gallagher has a blog devoted to his book on the Imperial Woodpecker here:

Imperial Dreams

Invasive Mink Preys on Magellanic Woodpeckers on Navarino Island in Southern Chile

Here's a great video of a female Magellanic Woodpecker excavating a cavity.

In a recent study, Jaime Jiménez and his research colleagues document predation of Magellanic Woodpeckers by invasive American minks on Navarino Island in Southern Chile. Navarino Island is a 955-square mile (2,473 kilometers) area located between Tierra del Fuego to the north and Cape Horn to the south. Mink apparently arrived on the island in the 1990s. Magellanic Woodpeckers are accustomed to an intensive level of feeding on the ground on the island, something they are not as prone to do on the mainland where three species of foxes and other potential predators exist.

The Magellanic Woodpecker is a charismatic species notable for being the largest extant woodpecker in the Americas (after the Imperial and Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, other members of the Campephilus genus that are possibly extinct). The authors present a compelling argument for broadening current management actions to control the mink population in order to protect the Magellanic Woodpecker and other less noticed native species.

Jiménez, Jaime E., et al. "Potential impact of the Alien American Mink (Neovison vison) on Magellanic woodpeckers (Campephilus magellanicus) in Navarino Island, Southern Chile." Biological Invasions (2013): 1-6.

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Red-necked Woodpecker Species Account

pica-pau-de-barriga-vermelha femea, a photo by vhobusfoto on Flickr. 

I recently authored a detailed species account on the Red-necked Woodpecker at Neotropical Birds Online (NBO).  It begins: 

The Red-necked Woodpecker is a large, spectacular Campephilus woodpecker of the rainforest.

 It is fairly common in Colombia and Venezuela and across the Guianas, and south through

 Amazonia to northern Bolivia.  

Each species account in NBO includes information on the identification, distribution, life history, conservation, and research references for a particular bird along with image and sound files for that species.  Visit NBO to read more about profiled Neotropical bird species and to see how you may contribute to authoring or enhancing additional species accounts!

Red-necked Woodpecker species account at Neotropical Birds Online

The superb photo you see here is a female Red-necked Woodpecker near Matto Grasso, Brazil.  It is posted here with permission of talented wildlife photographer Valdir Hobus. 

See more of V. Hobus' fine photography here

Carpintero Lomo Blanco

Carpintero Lomo Blanco, a photo by Javier Parigini on Flickr.

What an amazing portrait this is of a pair of Cream-backed Woodpeckers! The male is perched on the side of the tree, distinguished by his entirely red head with that black and white oval patch. The female is perched at the cavity, and she is distinguished by her black colored forehead and center of crest, and that rather dramatic looking white patch from the base of her bill tapering to a point below the rear of her ear coverts.

This fine photo was taken by Javier Parigini, and it is posted here with his permission.

View more of Javier Parigini's Photography here.

Powerful Woodpecker at Rio Blanco in Colombia

Powerful Woodpecker - Rio Blanco - Colombia_S4E2412, a photo by fveronesi1 on Flickr.

What a fine-looking male Powerful Woodpecker here in profile in full sunlight! Sexing this species is easy enough because the female's crest is black. This fine photo was taken by Francesco Veronesi at Rio Blanco, Colombia. It is posted here under Creative Commons license.

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers & Others in the Campephilus Genus

Click the image below to check out one of the largest collections of 

Campephilus woodpecker photos on the Internet!

You will find them in a Flickr group that I moderate called "Ivory-billed Woodpeckers & Others in the Campephilus Genus." Contributors share photos with this group on a weekly basis, so this marvelous collection of 4,985+ images is always growing!

How This Site is Organized

Everything that appears on this page, from top to bottom, is the Home Page.

• New Posts appear above this one
• They eventually get backdated to group them with their respective topics 

• Resource Posts appear below this one
• They are here to serve new and returning visitors with readily available info on all the Campephilus species names, major media links, etc.
• They remain on the Home Page

•  Easily Find What You Want
• Use Image Icons in the left sidebar to retrieve posts by species
• Select the News and Research buttons for posts on those areas of interest.
• Or, Select Any Category from the right sidebar to retrieve posts by category

Campephilus Species

There are either 11 or 12 Campephilus species depending on how the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is classified.  For more details, see a separate post at this link.

RANGE MAPS

Click on a species name to see its range map at Avibase, courtesy of NatureServe.

Cream-backed Woodpecker (Campephilus leucopogon)

Crimson-bellied Woodpecker (Campephilus heamatogaster)

Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos)

Cuban Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis bairdii)

Guayaquil Woodpecker (Campephilus gayaquilensis)

Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis)

Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis)

Magellanic Woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus)

Pale-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus guatemalensis)

Powerful Woodpecker (Campephilus pollens)

Red-necked Woodpecker (Campephilus rubricollis)

Robust Woodpecker (Campephilus robustus)

Various other sites offer the range map and other species information for each Campephilus woodpecker.   See, for example, this page at Xeno-canto:

Species Overview page for the Crimson-bellied Woodpecker

Campephilus Nomenclature

For a most incredibly detailed resource on Campephilus woodpecker nomenclature, visit Zoonomen's Zoological Nomenclature Resource at this link.   (It will take some searching to find "campephilus" there.  Select PICIFORMES in the left frame, and then Campephilus will appear near the bottom of the large frame).

Also, you can view a nice, and even more user-friendly, presentation of Campephilus taxonomic hierarchy and nomenclature drawn from Zoonomen at this site:

Integrated Taxonomic Information System

Campephilus Subspecies

At Avibase, the Cuban Ivory-billed Woodpecker is listed as a subspecies of the US Ivory-billed Woodpecker along with several other Campephilus subspecies.  Follow this logo link, then enter "Campephilus" in the search box to retrieve the list with subspecies:

WolframAlpha on Campephilus Woodpeckers

Here is an image from the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) search result from Wolfram Alpha's computational knowledge search engine that details Campephilus taxonomy.

Taxonomic network:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=ivory-billed+woodpecker
Source:  Wolfram Alpha LLC.  2010.  Wolfram|Alpha.
(accessed February 20, 2010).

By the way, if you've never entered your birth day, month and year into Wolfram Alpha, you may want to try it out here.

A Fossil Campephilus Species

In his book In Search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Jerome A. Jackson relates that a fossil species was described as Campephilus dalquesti by Pierce Brodkorb, an American ornithologist and paleontologist.  This fossil species was discovered in Scurry County in central Texas, and dated to the late Pliocene epoch.

I wonder what C. dalquesti looked like.   Maybe a bit like this dino-bird!?  At least the colors look right. The dino-bird portrayed below is Anchiornis huxleyi - you can find more info here.

Check out the amazing video at this link:

Finding Dino Color In Fossil Feathers

Handbook of the Birds of the World by Lynx Edicions

The Internet Bird Collection is a non-profit endeavor sponsored by the Handbook of the Birds of the World, whose publishers happened to select the Magellanic Woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in South America, to represent the entire Picidae family on the cover of Volume 7.

http://www.lynxeds.com/hbw/handbook-birds-world-v7

Some people were not quite as thrilled with that selection as I was.   In an overwhelmingly positive review of the book, Geoffrey Carpentier had this to say about the cover:

With a book of this nature, one has to try very hard before finding fault. My only quibble:

I didn't like the picture of the Magellanic Woodpecker on the cover. It seems

an ungainly bird and a prettier one could have been chosen. 

Oh well!

Listen, Look and Watch at the Macaulay Library

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library bills itself as "the world’s premier scientific archive of natural history audio, video, and photographs."  Follow the link below, and you'll be able to search for over thousands of Campephilus woodpecker media files by common or scientific name.

https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/about/

The Macaulay Library contains the notable 10 min, 20 sec length recording of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers drumming, making kents and also other vocalizations all recorded by Arthur A. Allen and his team in April, 1935.  It also contains a 1 min, 40 sec recording of what may be kent calls of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker recorded by John V. Dennis on February 25, 1968 in Texas.

Listen at Xeno-Canto

Xeno-canto is a community database of shared bird sounds from around the world.  It's an ever-growing collection of bird sounds.  At xeno-canto, you can listen to dozens of Campephilus woodpecker vocalizations, drumming and knocks from 9 out of the 12 species.  Missing are any sounds of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the Cuban Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Imperial Woodpecker.  That still leaves a multitude of recordings of the rest of the Campephilus family for your enjoyment and study

http://www.xeno-canto.org/browse.php?query=campephilus

Xeno-canto lets visitors to its site participate by discussing and identifying unknown sounds.  And, if you record bird sounds, you should know that xeno-canto also lets people upload and share their own recordings on the site.

Also, don't miss the highly informative Species Overview  pages on Xeno-Canto.  Available from the left frame menu, these pages offer a summary of number of species sound recordings, photos, range maps and sonogram images.   See this page, for example:

Species Overview page for the Red-necked Woodpecker

WikiAves - A Enciclopédia das Aves do Brasil

WikiAves Encyclopedia of Brazilian Birds is an amazing resource of Campephilus descriptive information, photos and sounds.   WikiAves represents the four species of Campephilus woodpeckers, listed below, that can be found in Brazil.

The photographs that I have seen in WikiAves are among the most spectacular ones that I've seen anywhere.

In English and Portuguese, the four species of Campephilus in WikiAves are:

• Cream-backed Woodpecker         Pica-pau-de-barriga-preta

• Crimson-crested Woodpecker      Pica-pau-de-topete-vermelho
  

• Red-necked Woodpecker             Pica-pau-de-barriga-vermelha 

• Robust Woodpecker                    Pica-pau-rei
  

   

Although the entry on the Cream-backed Woodpecker is rather slim (as of this posting) the others have a wealth of descriptive information.  And you'll find sounds and photos for all of them.  You can cut and paste the Portuguese text into your favorite web-based translator to understand the entries.

SIB - Parques Nacionales - Sistema de Información sobre Biodiversidad

There are 4 species of Campephilus that are native to Argentina which contain interesting and detailed profiles (en Español) along with dramatic illustrations of each species, except the Robust Woodpecker, at the SIB - Parques Nacionales - Sistema de Información sobre Biodiversidad site.  Be a bit patient to allow this site to load.

In English and with their Spanish names, the four species of Campephilus at the SIB site are:

1. Crimson-crested Woodpecker     Carpintero garganta negra

          Carpintero grande

2. Cream-backed Woodpecker     Carpintero lomo blanco

3. Magellanic Woodpecker     Carpintero gigante     Carpintero negro patagónico

          Carpintero patagónico

4. Robust Woodpecker     Carpintero grande

SORA Searchable Ornithological Research Archive

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

This posts highlights the extraordinary SORA project, the source of an incredible array of ornithological journal articles.  The SORA project is described as follows at the site:

The SORA project is an open access electronic journal archive and is the product of a collaboration between the American Ornithologists Union, the Cooper Ornithological Society, the Association of Field Ornithologists, the Wilson Ornithological Society and the University of New Mexico libraries and IT department. 

Here is the link to SORA.

Of course, there are many interesting articles on Campephilus woodpeckers within SORA.  For example, searching for the word "guayaquil" by keyword quickly retrieves this full-text article from within SORA:

WILLIAMS

First Description of the Nest, Eggs and Nestling of the Guayaquil Woodpecker (Campephilus [Phloeoceastes] Gayaquilensis) (Wilson Bulletin: Vol. 92, No. 4, October-December, 1980)

Here is an excerpt from that article:

The nest cavity was in the main trunk about 6 m above the ground. Its irregularly shaped entrance was large enough (about 75 x 100 mm) to admit my hand, and it was about 30 cm deep. I could not reach the cavity’s bottom or its contents, but using a mirror, I saw 1 egg and 1 newly-hatched young. The shell of the hatched egg was still in the nest. The eggs were white and immaculate-typical large woodpecker eggs. The nestling was making weak chirping sounds. Its eyes were closed, and it appeared naked; however, in the dim light of the cavity, sparse down probably would not have been obvious. It had a conspicuous eggtooth. I visited this nest again at 13:50. After approaching within 6-8 m of the female at the cavity entrance, I made several color transparencies (Frontispiece). I never saw more than 1 adult at this site.

I am amazed at how little still is known of the breeding and behavior of the Campephilus woodpeckers.

Cream-backed Woodpecker

 Originally posted 3/20/2010 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Some of the best woodpecker photos (Campephilus and others) that you will ever find are at a site called PicidPics, like this fantastic photo of a male Cream-backed Woodpecker. 

PicidPics features photos of picids, including woodpeckers, piculets and wrynecks by Martjan Lammertink and Julio Pérez Cañestro.  The site also features photos of woodpecker researchers in the field and photos of secondary cavity users.

Visit PicidPics here

Photo © Martjan Lammertink, posted here with permission.

This photo shows the bird's pale creamy mantle in excellent detail.  The male has a bright red head with black and white marks at the lower rear edge of its ear coverts.   Like some Campephilus relatives, the Cream-backed Woodpecker has a striking chisel-shaped, ivory-colored bill.

You can also see here the long toe that the large Campephilus woodpeckers extend to their side to secure their stance against a tree.  It's a good brace against gravity!  You'd probably extend your arms out to either side like this if you found yourself braced against a cliff on a narrow ledge.

The Cream-backed Woodpecker inhabits subtropical and dry tropical forests in south central South America in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.  Unlike several of its close relatives, this species occurs in savannas, and it can be observed visiting isolated trees in open areas.

Cream-backed Woodpecker - 3 Photos

Originally posted 3/22/11 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

  
Silvia Vitale was kind enough to grant permission for me to post these excellent photos she took of a female Cream-backed Woodpecker.  She took them at La Cumbre, Cordoba Province, Argentina near the village.  As you see here, the female sports a striking, white moustachial stripe adjacent to her ivory bill.  The male bird's head is almost entirely red.  Cream-backed Woodpeckers inhabit xeric (dry) woodlands of the chaco habitat in southern-central parts of South America, occurring in savannas, pastures with copses, groves, woodland and transitional forests, up to 2,500m.*

*Reference - Woodpeckers: A Guide to the Woodpeckers of the World by H. Winkler, DA Christie & D. Nurney.

Cream-backed Woodpecker

Many thanks to Gary Clark for granting permission to post his stunning photograph of a female Cream-backed Woodpecker here.  For more information about this photo, or two see other amazing photos by Gary Clark, visit his web albums at this link.

Cream-backed Woodpecker

Many thanks to Karisusi78 for sharing this video of a male Cream-backed Woodpecker from Paraguay.

Cream-backed Woodpecker

Many thanks to Karina Diarte on Flickr for sharing this striking photo of a male Cream-backed Woodpecker here. The photo is posted here with her permission.

Cream-backed Woodpecker

Many thanks to Karina Diarte on Flickr for sharing this beautiful photo of a female Cream-backed Woodpecker here. The photo is posted here with her permission.

Carpintero Lomo Blanco

Originally posted 10/19/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Here is an interesting video posted by infofon on YouTube that shows a female Carpintero Lomo Blanco, a Cream-backed Woodpecker, displaying an array of behaviors. Two birds are briefly in flight before one bird does a couple of double raps (typical of some members of the Campephilus genus) perhaps to signal another bird nearby. I'm not sure whether or not it is the same bird seen earlier, but toward the end of the video, you will see a female hitching herself up a tree trunk and then foraging.

Press play, then change the setting at the lower right of the video box from  360p to 480p to watch it at higher resolution.

I know a little Spanish, but not enough to translate the comments in this video. If you can translate them into English, please post a comment and then I'll revise this post with that info.  UPDATE - Thanks to Martjan for this translation of the video comments into English:

"Well, we are going to try to continue observing. They told us it is very difficult to make a video take because they do not sit still. And they stay very few seconds in a tree and then fly to another tree. So we continue to walk, searching for other individuals around here".

Cream-backed Woodpeckers: A Closer Look

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

It's hard to convey the brilliance of the nearly 150-year old, hand-colored lithographs in Alfred Malherbe's Monographie des Picidées that one sees upon viewing the genuine article.  A closer look at the Cream-backed Woodpeckers depicted in Plate III (female, above and male, below) helps to reveal more of their fine detail.  My apologies if the occasional large-sized photos I post are less than ideal for your particular monitor.

The flight feather on the right belongs to the Robust Woodpecker.  See the full Plate III illustration for a comparison of Cream-backed and Robust Woodpecker flight feathers.

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

Mégapic de Boié, the Cream-backed Woodpecker

Originally posted 7/3/10 - backdated to organize posts by topic.

Here's Plate III from Alfred Malherbe's Monographie des Picidées depicting the striking female Cream-backed Woodpecker on the left, the male bird on the right, and a pair of Robust Woodpeckers in the background.

Clicking on any of these illustrations will take you into my album of Malherbe's illustrations where you can download large-sized illustration files. The 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.