Black-cheeked Woodpecker

 

This beautiful woodpecker (named after the French zoologist Jacques Pucheran) occurs from southern Mexico down to western Colombia and western Ecuador and to the extreme northwest of Peru. Like most of its family, the Black-cheeked Woodpecker is very distinctive, with a big black face mask, a white patch behind the eye, black upperparts with narrow white bars, and big white rump patch. The male also has a full red crown, whereas the female has a grayish forecrown and red hindcrown.

It prefers humid and wet evergreen forests, forest borders, scattered tall trees in clearings, and old secondary-growth and abandoned plantations. It may sometimes even enter gardens.The Black-cheeked Woodpecker feeds mainly on insects (including spiders, termites, beetles, and ants), but will also take substantial quantities of fruit, berries, and seeds and also drinks nectar. A varied diet indeed!

 

Black-cheeked Woodpecker - Male ( Melanerpes pucherani)

Sarapiqui, Heredia Province, Costa Rica

April 2024