Woodpeckers (Picidae)
Olive Woodpecker (Dendropicos griseocephalus) - HBW 7, p. 470
French: Pic olive
German: Goldrückenspecht
Spanish: Pito Oliváceo
Taxonomy: Picus griseocephalus Boddaert, 1783, Cape of Good Hope.
Often placed with D. goertae and D. spodocephalus in a separate genus Mesopicos, sometimes also including D. elliotii; forms a superspecies with the first two, interbreeding where ranges meet. Proposed race persimilis (Angola to N Malawi) inseparable from ruwenzori. Three subspecies currently recognized.
Subspecies and Distribution:
- ruwenzori (Sharpe, 1902) - Angolan highlands, and E Zaire and SW Uganda (Ruwenzoris and Impenetrable Forest), S to NC & NE Namibia, SC Zambia and N Malawi.
- kilimensis (Neumann, 1926) - Tanzanian highlands: Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Meru, and mountains of N Pare, Usambara, Uluguru and Udzungwa.
- griseocephalus (Boddaert, 1783) - extreme S Mozambique (Lebombo Mts) and E & S South Africa (E Natal to S Cape Province).
- Least Concern Enlarge map
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A male looking for insects in the hole of a trunk and then flying away Locality Buhoma, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda (ssp ruwenzori)
Josep del Hoyo 8 September 2006 5 years ago 39 sec 4
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Male feeding in tree
Locality Gisenyi, West Province, Rwanda
Jason Anderson 28 December 2009 2 years ago 2.8
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Bird calling in a mixed-species flock. 7:35am. Locality Bathurst, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
(ssp griseocephalus)
Charles Hesse 9 September 2010 2 years ago 4
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