Identification: Yellow-fronted Woodpecker (Melanerpes flavifrons) is colorful Mantle glossy black, streaked white, back and rump white. Uppertail black, some white bars on outer feathers, undertail browner. Breast grey or olive, belly red, flanks white or buff barred black. Upper wings glossy black, bluish tones on flight feathers, some white on secondaries and tertials, underwing brownish barred white.
Forecrown, cheek, chin, throat, and (sometimes) chest gold or yellow. Black mask runs from the bill and lores, around the eye, over the ear-coverts, and continues down to the shoulder and mantle. Iris bluish-black, distinct yellow or orange orbital ring.
Bill black. Legs olive-brown. Sexes differ: the male has red from mid-crown to nape; the female bluish-black crown. Juvenile less glossy, browner overall, with smaller and paler red belly patch and brown iris. Juvenile male red on crown and nape, female with red mid-crown.
Vocalizations: Often noisy, birds calling together. Greeting call an exciting series of squeaky, liquid chlit notes. Rapid, raucous, rattling, repetitive wutwutwutwut,
tweewetwee and kikikiki. Calls piercing and chaotic when groups are excited.
Drumming: Brief, steady, level-pitched rolls, usually interspersed with calls.
Status; Occurs over a large area and is often fairly common. Reasonably adaptable and probably not threatened. A keystone species with its cavities used by parakeets and smaller toucans. This is a fairly common species, which population trend is not known.
Habitat: This 18cm bird is commonly found in open lowland and upland rainforests and gallery forests. Also palm groves, farmland with trees, orchards, wooded suburbs, secondary growth, and degraded forests, often with tall post-fire trees.
Range: E South America. Either side of the Equator in E and SE Brazil (Bahia, SE Mato Grosso, Rio Grande do Sul), E Paraguay, and NE Argentina (Misiones). Sea-level to 1800m, resident and sedentary non-migratory species are found in sparsely forested areas.
Taxonomy and variation Monotypic: Individual and regional differences in size, the intensity of red belly patch, and orbital-ring color. Some birds were spotted black, others slightly barred, on the white back. Birds in NW are usually lighter below, with whiter breasts and an orange belly than elsewhere.
Similar species: None within range.
Food and foraging: Highly frugivorous, even feeding fruit to its young. Visits feeders use anvils and store both plant and insect food.
Read More – Black Sickle Bill
