Saturday, 25 March 2017

24-3-2017 RANCHO NATURALISTA, COSTA RICA - BLACK CHEEKED WOODPECKER (Melanerpes pucherani)


The black-cheeked woodpecker (Melanerpes pucherani ) is a resident breeding bird from southeastern Mexico south to western Ecuador.

This woodpecker occurs in the higher levels of wet forests, semi-open woodland and old second growth. It nests in an unlined hole 6–30 m (20–98 ft) high in a dead tree. The clutch is two to four glossy white eggs, incubated by both sexes.

The binomial commemorates the French zoologist Jacques Pucheran.

The black-cheeked woodpecker feeds on insects, but will take substantial quantities of fruit and nectar.


This common and conspicuous species gives a rattling krrrrrl call and both sexes drum on territory.

Medium-sized woodpecker of evergreen forests and their edges in tropical lowlands. Less numerous than the larger and more conspicuous Golden-fronted Woodpecker, which occurs in the same areas. Distinctive, with a large black mask, white patch behind the eyes, black upperparts with narrow white bars and a large white patch on the rump. The male has an entire red crown. In the female the front is greyish and the back is red.


The adult is 18.5 cm (7.3 in) long and weighs 63 g (2.2 oz). It has black upperparts with white barring on the back, white spotting on the wings and a white rump. The tail is black with some white barring, and the underparts are pale buff-olive with a red central belly. There is a black patch through the eyes and on the cheeks, a yellow forehead, and a red nape. The crown is red in the male and black in the female. Young birds are duller, have less white above and less red on the belly.

The Black-cheeked Woodpecker has black upperpart with white-barred mantled and spotted wings. The face and sides of the neck are also black. The throat and breast are brownish-buff with barred belly and central red area. The male has a red cap and nape. Females have only the nape red. It is the only medium size woodpecker with a dark back within its range. Resembles the Yellow-tufted Woodpecker, but their ranges do not overlap.

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