Brown-backed Woodpecker (Dendropicos obsoletus)

Other Scientific Names
Dendropicos obsoletus [Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993)], Picoides obsoletus [Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993)]

Other Names (World)
Brown-backed Woodpecker, Lesser White-spotted Woodpecker

Family
Picidae (Woodpeckers)

Size
13 - 14 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Wagler, 1829)

Habitat
Subtropical and tropical lowland dry shrubland, dry savanna. From sea-level - 3,000 m.

Range (Guide)

Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], C�te dIvoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda.

Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Voice
Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (1)...)

Brown-backed Woodpecker (Dendropicos obsoletus) [XC209958]
by Valentijn Hermans from Gambela, Dembidolo Road, Ethiopia (tapping)

Brown-backed Woodpecker (Dendropicos obsoletus) [XC781046]
by Joost van Bruggen from Missira (near Kawan\u00e9), Tambacounda, R\u00e9gion de Tambacounda, Senegal (call)

Subspecies
Probably closely related to Asian Sulawesi Pygmy Woodpecker (Picoides temminckii), Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker (Picoides maculatus) and Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker (Picoides moluccensis). Southern Ethiopian birds described as a separate subspecies nigricans, but considered indistinguishable from ingens.

The following 4 subspecies are recognised:

obsoletus (Wagler, 1829) - Senegambia east to western Sudan and Uganda (east to Teso), south to central Sierra Leone, southern Cameroon and north-eastern Zaire.
heuglini (Neumann, 1904) - Eastern Sudan, northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.
ingens (Hartert, 1900) - West-central and southern Ethiopia, north-eastern Uganda, western and central Kenya and extreme northern Tanzania (Loliondo).
crateri (Sclater, WL & Moreau, 1935) - Northern Tanzania from Crater Highlands south to Nou Forest.

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Brown-backed Woodpecker (Dendropicos obsoletus) - 10 files

More Information

BirdLife International

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BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

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