Picid in Focus: Yellow-crowned Woodpecker Dendrocopos mahrattensis

This small "pied" woodpecker occurs in a range of habitats, mostly in arid lowland areas, on the Indian subcontinent with isolated population elsewhere in Sri Lanka Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. 

Sounds: Eurasian Wryneck

Song of a territorial male (Common Chaffinch also calling)

Song of Eurasian Wryneck Jynx torquilla

Recorded in April 2011, Starigrad Paklenica, Croatia, by Gerard Gorman.

Picid in Focus: Buff-spotted Woodpecker Campethera nivosa.

This African species is a forest-dweller and an ant-eater that invariably forages low-down in trees, bushes and undergrowth on finer twigs and plant stems. Pairs sometimes excavate their nest-hole in a termitarium. It is polytypic with 4 subspecies recognised: nominate nivosa, maxima, poensis and herberti. This bird photographed in the Gambia in 2010 by Vaughan Ashby.

Sounds: Syrian Woodpecker

Agitated territorial male

Syrian Woodpecker Dendrocopos syriacus

Recorded in February 2011 in Budapest, Hungary, by Gerard Gorman.

Picid in Focus: White-backed Woodpecker Dendrocopos leucotos

This species ranges from continental Europe eastwards to Japan. There are 10 races, some very distinct. It is uncommon, if not rare, in western Europe but more common and widespread in the east. White-backed Woodpecker is a specialist, inhabiting mature forests with much dead and decaying wood and feeding mainly on wood-boring beetles. This photo of a male nominate race was taken in Austria by Thomas Hochebner.

Picid in Focus: Levaillant's Woodpecker Picus vaillantii

This monotypic species is resident in mainly mature montane forests of pine, oak and cedar in north Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). It was formally considered a race of Eurasian Green Woodpecker. In plumage it is most like Iberian race of that species. This male (note all-red crown, both sexes have black malar stripes) photographed in Morocco in February 2011 by Vaughan Ashby.