Hairpecker
| Hairpecker | ||||||||||||
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Hairy Woodpecker ( Leuconotopicus villosus ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Leuconotopicus villosus | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1766) |
The hairpecker ( Leuconotopicus villosus , syn .: Picoides villosus ) is the most widespread woodpecker in North America. There are 18 subspecies.
features
The 85 g heavy woodpecker is 16.5 to 26.7 cm long with a wingspan of 44.5 cm, of which 10 cm is accounted for by the tail and 3.5 cm by the beak. The plumage is predominantly white on the top and on the wings. The back, throat and stomach are colored white. It has a white stripe above and below the eye. The tail feathers are colored black inside and white outside. The male differs from the female by a red spot on the back of the head.
The plumage of the young bird is predominantly black with whitish dashes and spots. The parting is reddish.
Occurrence
The hairpecker prefers to live in forests with old trees and plenty of dead wood. But it also occurs in sparse forests, on farmland, in parks and gardens. The distribution area extends over almost all of North and Central America, as well as on some islands in the Caribbean. The hairpecker is for the most part a resident bird , only the northernmost populations move south and those that occur at high altitudes move to deeper forest areas.
behavior
The woodpecker looks under the bark, on leaves or in tree holes for insects and their larvae, which it pulls out with the help of its beak and long tongue. Small vertebrates, bird eggs, fruits, nuts, berries and tree sap are also part of its diet. The hairpecker clamps nuts between forks of branches, the so-called woodpecker smiths, and chops them up with its powerful beak. For the winter, storage facilities are set up in tree hollows and crevices. But if the food becomes scarce, the bird is a frequent visitor to feeding grounds.
Reproduction
In the breeding season, the hairpecker drummed loudly and quickly against tree trunks to defend its territory. He also makes shrill calls and rattling noises. It nests in unpadded tree hollows at a height of four to sixty meters. The clutch of four whitish eggs on average is incubated for around 14 days. The young birds leave the nest 28-30 days after hatching. The nest building, the incubation of the eggs and the rearing of the young are carried out by both parents.
Systematics
Traditionally, the hairpecker was placed in the genus Picoides . Molecular genetic studies, however, revealed the close relationship with the stickland woodpecker , the Arizona woodpecker , the white-headed woodpecker and the cockade woodpecker . The species was therefore transferred in 2015 by Jerôme Fuchs together with these species to the genus Leuconotopicus established by Alfred Malherbe in 1845 .
The following subspecies are distinguished:
- Leuconotopicus villosus audubonii Swainson , 1832
- Leuconotopicus villosus harrisi Audubon , 1838
- Leuconotopicus villosus hyloscopus Cabanis & Heine , 1863
- Leuconotopicus villosus icastus Oberholser , 1911
- Leuconotopicus villosus jardinii Malherbe , 1845
- Leuconotopicus villosus maynardi Ridgway , 1887
- Leuconotopicus villosus orius Oberholser, 1911
- Leuconotopicus villosus picoideus Osgood , 1901
- Leuconotopicus villosus piger Allen , 1905
- Leuconotopicus villosus sanctorum Nelson , 1897 - Mexican hairpecker -
- Leuconotopicus villosus septentrionalis Nuttall , 1840 - American hairpecker -
- Leuconotopicus villosus sitkensis Swarth , 1911
- Leuconotopicus villosus terraenovae Batchelder , 1908
- Leuconotopicus villosus villosus Linnaeus , 1766 - Hairpecker -
literature
- Miklos DF Udvardy: National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds - Western Region Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1977,1994,2006 ISBN 0-679-42851-8
Web links
- Hairpecker on Animal Diversity Web
- Leuconotopicus villosus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 6 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings for Picoides villosus in the Internet Bird Collection
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jérôme Fuchs and Jean-Marc Pons: A new classification of the Pied Woodpeckers assemblage (Dendropicini, Picidae) based on a comprehensive multi-locus phylogeny . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 88 (2015) 28-37