Habitat
Mature mixed woodland from lowlands to foothills, sometimes in natural pure conifer stands. In non-breeding season in more marginal wooded habitat.
Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia (B), China (mainland) (B), India (B), Indonesia (B), Japan (E) (B), Laos (B), Malaysia (B), Myanmar (B), North Korea (B), Philippines (B), Singapore (B), South Korea (B), Thailand (B), Vietnam (B).
Western Europe, across taiga to Russia, China, Krea and Japan.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
White-bellied Woodpecker (Dryocopus javensis) [XC214024]
by Mike Nelson from Khotigao, Uttara Kannada, Goa, India (call)
White-bellied Woodpecker (Dryocopus javensis) [XC531721]
by Okamoto Keita Sin from Lower Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia (call, flight call)
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Andaman Woodpecker (Dryocopus hodgei), and sometimes considered conspecific. Proposed subspecies buettikoferi (Nias I) appears indistinguishable from nominate; esthloterus (northern Luzon, in Philippines), supposedly with thinner bill and less white on head, is not safely separable from confusus. Subspecies philippinensis frequently misspelt "philippensis".
The following 15 subspecies are recognised:
hodgsonii (Jerdon, 1840) - Peninsular India in western Ghats, southern Madhya Pradesh, and Orissa to northern Andhra Pradesh.
forresti Rothschild, 1922 - Montane northern Myanmar and adjacent south-western China (south-western Sichuan, north-western and southern Yunnan).
richardsi Tristram, 1879 - Korea; extinct on Tsushima I (Japan).
feddeni (Blyth, 1863) - Myanmar (except north), most of Thailand, and Indochina.
javensis Tristan, 1879 - Southern Thailand south to Sumatra and Nias I, Java, Bali, and Borneo and associated islands, including northern Natunas.
parvus (Richmond, 1902) - Simeulue I (off north-western Sumatra).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet