Crimson-bellied woodpecker

The crimson-bellied woodpecker was at one time placed in its own genus Cniparchus that was later merged into genus Phloeoceastes which was itself later merged into the current Campephilus.[6]

The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC), the International Ornithological Committee, and the Clements taxonomy assign two subspecies to the crimson-bellied woodpecker, the nominate C. h. haematogaster (Tschudi, 1844) and C. h. splendens (Hargitt, 1889).[6][3][7] BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats splendens as a full species, the splendid woodpecker.[8] The SACC is seeking a proposal to accept the split.[6]

This article follows the two-subspecies model.

The crimson-bellied woodpecker is 33 to 34 cm (13 to 13 in) long and weighs 225 to 250 g (7.9 to 8.8 oz). Both sexes of the nominate subspecies have a red forehead, crown, nape, and hindneck, a thin black line above the eye, a thin buff supercilium behind the eye, a wider black band from the nares through the eye to the red of the nape, and a black chin and throat. Males have a buff band between the black eye band and chin; on females the rear of the band extends down the side of the neck to the upper breast. Both sexes' scapulars and upper back are black to brownish black, their lower back and rump are deep red, and their uppertail coverts and tail are black. Their wings' upper surface is black with two white spots on most of the flight feathers. The wings' underside is blackish with pale bars. Their entire underparts from the bottom of the throat are red. Juveniles resemble adults but are duller and browner with a sooty forehead and less red on their underparts. Subspecies C. h. splendens differs from the nominate with a red lower throat to upper breast, three large buff spots instead of two white ones on the flight feathers, a wider and somewhat differently shaped buff band on the face, and rather mottled underparts.[9]

Subspecies C. h. splendens of the crimson-bellied woodpecker is the more northerly of the two. It is found in Panama along the whole Caribbean slope and from Panamá Province on the Pacific side and through western Colombia into western Ecuador. The nominate subspecies is found on the east slope of the Andes from Colombia south through Ecuador and Peru slightly into Bolivia.[9][4][5] The species mostly inhabits the interior of humid and wet forest, montane forest, and várzea, though it also is found along the forest edge. In elevation it ranges from near sea level to 1,600 m (5,200 ft) in Panama, to 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in western Colombia, and to about 800 m (2,600 ft) in western Ecuador. East of the Andes it ranges between 500 and 1,500 m (1,600 and 4,900 ft) in Colombia, between about 1,000 and 1,700 m (3,300 and 5,600 ft) in Ecuador, and between 900 and 2,200 m (3,000 and 7,200 ft) in Peru.[9]

The IUCN follows HBW taxonomy and so has assessed the two subspecies of the crimson-bellied woodpecker separately. It has assessed the nominate "crimson-bellied" as being of Least Concern. It has a large range, but its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.[1] It has assessed the "splendid" C. h. splendens as Near Threatened. It too has a large range and an unknown population size that is believed to be decreasing. Clearance of mature forest for human habitation, farming, ranching, mining, and timber are the known threats, though no one of them predominates.[2]