Woodpeckers (Picidae)
Green-backed Woodpecker (Campethera cailliautii) - HBW 7, p. 460
French: Pic de Cailliaut
German: Tüpfelspecht
Spanish: Pito de Cailliaud
Other common names: Little Spotted Woodpecker
Taxonomy: Chrysopicos Cailliautii Malherbe, 1849, Mombasa.
Forms a superspecies with C. maculosa. Has hybridized rarely with latter in Ghana. Distinctive race permista often thought to be separate species, but interbreeds freely with nyansae in Angola and Zaire. Proposed race togoensis (Ghana E to S Nigeria) regarded as synonymous with permista; and kaffensis (SW Ethiopia) with nyansae; fuelleborni (sometimes misspelt fulleborni), from W Tanzania to Zambia, is also synonymized with nyansae. Orange-naped form “quadrosi”, known only from the Mozambique type specimen, is co.. View all taxonomy...
Forms a superspecies with C. maculosa. Has hybridized rarely with latter in Ghana. Distinctive race permista often thought to be separate species, but interbreeds freely with nyansae in Angola and Zaire. Proposed race togoensis (Ghana E to S Nigeria) regarded as synonymous with permista; and kaffensis (SW Ethiopia) with nyansae; fuelleborni (sometimes misspelt fulleborni), from W Tanzania to Zambia, is also synonymized with nyansae. Orange-naped form “quadrosi”, known only from the Mozambique type specimen, is considered to be an aberrant form of loveridgei. Four subspecies recognized.
Subspecies and Distribution:
- permista (Reichenow, 1876) - E Ghana E to extreme SW Sudan, SW Uganda, and S to N Angola and C Zaire.
- nyansae (Neumann, 1900) - SW Ethiopia, SW Kenya and NW Tanzania through E Zaire to N Zambia and NE Angola.
- loveridgei Hartert, 1920 - C Tanzania (Kilosa area) S to extreme E Zimbabwe (Mt Zelinda) and Mozambique (S to R Limpopo).
- cailliautii (Malherbe, 1849) - coastal zone from S Somalia (lower R Jubba and Boni Forest) S to NE Tanzania, including Zanzibar I.
- Least Concern Enlarge map
- No videos available yet
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Adult male perched
Locality Ngaoundaba Ranch, Ngaoundéré, Adamawa Province, Cameroon (ssp permista)
Nik Borrow 1 March 2012 52 weeks ago 3.5 -
Female feeding on tree-beehive, part of pair
Locality Kibungo, East Province, Rwanda (ssp nyansae)
Jason Anderson 11 October 2009 2 years ago 2.6 -
Male feeding on acacia
Locality Akagera National Park, East Province, Rwanda (ssp nyansae)
Jason Anderson 7 November 2010 2 years ago 2.3
- No sound recordings available yet
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