Rufous-bellied Woodpecker Dendrocopos hyperythrus

Rufous-bellied Woodpecker Dendrocopos hyperythrus

(aka Hypopicus hyperythrus)

Dochu La, Thimphu, Bhutan
March 2008

The Rufous-bellied Woodpecker is distributed in the foothills of the Himalayas and into south-west China, Myanmar, Thailand and Indochina. A disjunct population in Manchuria migrates to southern China in the winter.

It is found in most types of forest above about 1000 metres and up to over 4000 metres.

A handsome woodpecker, the male, shown here, has a bright red crown from forehead to nape, white around the eyes with an otherwise chestnut head and a long straight bill with a dark upper mandible and a yellowish-green lower mandible. The back and wings are black with white bars while the underparts are rufous except for reddish undertail coverts.

It feeds on insects with a preference for ants but in the spring it also feeds on tree sap extracted from sap wells that it drills round the trunks of certain trees as can be seen in photos 1 and 2.

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