Blond-crested Woodpecker

Overview

The blond-crested woodpecker (Celeus flavescens) is a species of bird in the family Picidae found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. It is a year-round resident that inhabits the interior and edges of humid forests, as well as gallery forests, savannas, caatinga, and orchards.

Identification

• Length of 27 to 30 cm with a pale creamy buff to yellowish white head featuring a long, pointed crest.
• Males have a wide bright red malar area and cheek, while females have black streaks in the same areas.
• Black mantle and upper back contrasting with a buffish white to pale yellow lower back, rump, and uppertail coverts.
• Main call is a resonant loud 'tsew' or 'wee' repeated up to seven times.

Habitat

The species inhabits the interior and edges of humid forest, as well as gallery forest, savanna, caatinga, and orchards. Its range covers western Bahia, Goiás, and Minas Gerais in Brazil, extending southeast to Rio Grande do Sul, eastern Paraguay, and Argentina's Misiones Province.

Diet

The diet consists primarily of arboreal ants, carpenter ants, and termites, with lesser amounts of fruits and berries. It forages at the middle levels to the canopy of the forest, or on the ground, by gleaning, probing, pecking, and hammering, usually in pairs or small groups.

Did you know?

This bird plays an ecological role as an important pollinator and seed disperser. It breeds between April and June in eastern Brazil, but between October and November in Argentina, excavating nest cavities in trees or arboreal ant nests.