Brown-backed Woodpecker (Dendropicos obsoletus) [XC896706]
by id from Tujereng Woodland, Gambia (drumming)
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.