Bennett’s Woodpecker

Campethera bennettii

Woodland. Male with red cap and moustachial streak; female with red nape; brown face and throat; below lightly spotted.

Woodpeckers

Not Endemic

Description

Fairly common resident. A medium-sized woodpecker with spotted underparts (except in Namibia, where it is unspotted). Male identified by entirely red crown and malar streak, female by brown facial and throat-patches. The call is an excitable, high-pitched chattering, sometimes by two or three birds together ‘whirrwhirrwhirrwhir-it-whir-it-whir-itwrrrrrrrrr…’, often accompanied by wing-flapping. Usually occurs in pairs or groups in broad-leaved woodland and thornveld, feeding mainly on the ground.

Quick Facts

Bird Family

Small, robust birds with straight, pointed bills, stiff tails and zygodactylous feet (the inner and outer toes are directed backward and the two central toes forward). They glean insects and their larvae from within crevices in trees and from beneath bark by tapping with their bills to loosen or chip the wood and inserting their long sticky tongues. While feeding, they use the tail as a prop. They normally occur in pairs and excavate holes in trees for nesting, these frequently being used in turn by other hole-nesting species. Many woodpeckers are very similar in appearance. They are best identified by head and breast markings plus call. The aberrant Ground Woodpecker is entirely terrestrial and nests in holes in banks.