Voice
A sharp 'khit' or 'khit-khit-khit' uttered frequently. Also a highly distinctive buzzy 'kzzz kzzz' or an agitated 'kikikiki'. Drumming is very faint.
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker (Yungipicus kizuki) [XC175813]
by Albert Lastukhin from Wolpyeong-dong area, West Daejeon, South Korea (call)
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker (Yungipicus kizuki) [XC267394]
by Albert Lastukhin from Mikhaylovskiy rayon, Primorskiy kray, Russian Federation (call, drumming)
Subspecies
Has been thought to form a superspecies with Grey-capped Woodpecker (Picoides canicapillus), although their ranges overlap rather extensively in north-eastern Asia. Varies clinally, becoming smaller and darker from north to south. Described mainland subspecies permutatus (Sidemi, in Ussuriland), wilderi (north-eastern Hebei) and acutirostris (eastern Korea), and island subspecies kurilensis (Kuril Is), nippon (Honshu), shikokuensis (SHonshu and Shikoku), matsudairai (Izu Is), kotataki (Oki and Tsushima), nigrescens (Okinawa) and orii (Iriomote in southern Ryukyus), all considered insufficiently distinct.
The following 11 subspecies are recognised:
ijimae (Temminck, 1836) - South-eastern Siberia (southern Ussuriland) and Sakhalin south to north-eastern Korea, northern Japan (Hokkaido) and southern Kuril Is.
seebohmi Hargitt, 1884 - Korea (except north-east), Quelpart I (Cheju-do) and Honshu.
kizuki (Temminck, 1836) - North-eastern China (south to Shandong), and southern Japan including Tsushima, Shikoku, Kyushu, Izu Is, and southern Ryukyu Is (south to Iriomote).
amamii Kuroda, Nagamichi, 1922 - Amami and Tokunoshima in northern Ryukyus.
permutatus (Meise, 1934) - North-eastern China, south-eastern Siberia and northern Korea.