Woodpeckers (Picidae)

Grey-capped Woodpecker (Dendrocopos canicapillus) - HBW 7, p. 474

French: Pic à coiffe grise German: Grauscheitelspecht Spanish: Pico Crestigrís
Other common names: Grey-headed Woodpecker(!), Pygmy Woodpecker(!), Grey-crowned Woodpecker(!); Taiwan/Formosan Woodpecker (“wattersi”)

Taxonomy: Picus canicapillus Blyth, 1845, Ramree Island, Arakan, Myanmar.
Genus sometimes merged into Picoides. Most closely related to D. kizuki and sometimes thought to form a superspecies with it, although ranges of the two overlap rather extensively in mainland E Asia; more distantly related to D. temminckii, D. maculatus and D. moluccensis. Has at times been considered conspecific with race nanus of D. moluccensis, in which case name nanus has priority; however, the two are sympatric in Nepal without interbreeding. Mainland races intergrade. Taiwan population originally named as a separate species, “D. wattersi”, but specimen shown to be juvenile of present species; name subsequently synonymized with kaleensis. Other named races include szetschuanensis (C China), nagamichii (E China), omissus (SW China), obscurus (SE Yunnan) and tonkinensis (Tonkin), all considered either to represent intergrades between populations or to fall within range of variation of adjacent races. Eleven subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

mitchellii (Malherbe, 1849) - N Pakistan E to Nepal.
semicoronatus (Malherbe, 1849) - extreme E Nepal E to W Assam.
canicapillus (Blyth, 1845) - E Assam, Bangladesh, C & S Myanmar, most of Thailand and Laos.

See all 11 subspecies

mitchellii (Malherbe, 1849) - N Pakistan E to Nepal.
semicoronatus (Malherbe, 1849) - extreme E Nepal E to W Assam.
canicapillus (Blyth, 1845) - E Assam, Bangladesh, C & S Myanmar, most of Thailand and Laos.
delacouri (Meyer de Schauensee, 1938) - SE Thailand, Cambodia and Cochinchina.
auritus (Eyton, 1845) - S Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia.
volzi (Stresemann, 1920) - Riau Archipelago and Sumatra, including Nias I.
aurantiiventris (Salvadori, 1868) - Borneo.
doerriesi (Hargitt, 1881) - E Siberia (Ussuriland), E Manchuria and Korea.
scintilliceps (Swinhoe, 1863) - E & C China from Liaoning S to Sichuan and Zhejiang.
kaleensis (Swinhoe, 1863) - W & S Sichuan E to Fujian and Taiwan, and S to N Myanmar and N Indochina.
swinhoei (Hartert, 1910) - Hainan.