African Grey Woodpecker (Dendropicos goertae) [XC412367]
by Peter Boesman from Ouad\u00e2ne, Chinguetti, Adrar, Mauritania (alarm call, call)
African Grey Woodpecker (Dendropicos goertae) [XC101145]
by selvino from Kerio Valley, Kenya (call)
Subspecies
Dendropicos goertae and Dendropicos spodocephalus (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped and transferred to the genus Mesopicos following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993).
Forms a superspecies with Grey-headed Woodpecker (Dendropicos spodocephalus) and Olive Woodpecker (Dendropicos griseocephalus), hybridizing with them where ranges meet. Often treated as conspecific with Grey-headed Woodpecker (Dendropicos spodocephalus). Subspecies intergrade.
Proposed subspecies agmen (tree-savanna belt from Gambia south to Liberia and across to east-central Sudan), centralis (savanna from Cameroon to south-western Sudan and western Kenya) and oreites (highlands of central Cameroon) all considered inseparable from nominate.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
koenigi (Neumann, 1903) - Sahel zone from east-central Mali east to western and southern Sudan.
goertae (P. L. S. Müller, 1776) - South-western Mauritania and Senegambia east to southern Sudan and western and central Kenya, and south to north-eastern Zaire, Rwanda and north-western Tanzania.
abessinicus (Reichenow, 1900) - Eastern Sudan and northern and western Ethiopia.
meridionalis Louette & Prigogine, 1982 - Southern Gabon to north-western Angola (Cabinda, possibly south to Malanje), and south-central Zaire.
centralis (Reichenow, 1900) - Eastern Angola east to western Tanzania, south to northern Namibia and Zambia.