The Andean flicker (''Colaptes rupicola'') is a

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

n species of

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...

. It is found in grassland, shrubland and '' Polylepis'' woodland at altitudes of in the Puna ecoregion. Together with the

campo flicker The campo flicker (''Colaptes campestris'') is a species of bird in the woodpecker family. It is found in a wide range of open and semi-open habitats in eastern Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and northeastern Argentina, with isolated populati ...

and ground woodpecker, it is one of the few largely

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

woodpeckers.

Description

A large woodpecker, it grows to a length of about . It has a long tail, rounded wings (noticeable in flight) and a long powerful beak. The head and throat are largely white or buff, marked by a black crown and nape and a dark malar stripe, tinged reddish in the male in some subspecies. Body upper parts are boldly barred in black or dark brown and buff. The upper wings are brown and slightly barred and the under wings are yellowish. The tail coverts are white with slight brown barring, the upper tail is blackish with fine barring at the sides and the under tail has buff edges. Underparts are cream or buff with some darker speckling, the breast sometimes being tinged with orange. The beak is black, the iris yellowish and the legs grey, pink or buff.

Distribution and habitat

The species is native to Peru, Chile, eastern Bolivia and northeastern Argentina. Its altitudinal range is between about . More common habitat types occupied are high mountain terrain with rocky outcrops, stones, scrub, grassland and alpine tundra, including páramo and

puna grassland The puna grassland ecoregion, of the montane grasslands and shrublands biome, is found in the central Andes Mountains of South America. It is considered one of the eight Natural Regions in Peru,Pulgar Vidal, Javier: Geografía del Perú; Las Oc ...

. It is sometimes found in the upper parts of the tree zone, plantations and woodland patches.

Ecology

The Andean flicker is unusual among woodpeckers in that it is found in open country, largely devoid of trees, and

forage Forage is a plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term ''forage'' has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used ...

s on the ground, the Latin adjective ''rupicolus'' signifying "inhabiting among rocks". It often feeds in family groups, keeping in touch with other birds by constant chatter and uttering a number of different vocalisations, including a scolding alarm call given in flight. It seldom, if ever, drums. The diet is mainly insects, which it finds by sweeping away debris on bare ground with its beak and probing into the soil and grass clumps. Nests occupy holes that it digs in soft soil in cliffs or on banks. Another unusual feature is that it often nests colonially rather than alone, as do most woodpeckers.

Status

''C. rupicola'' is a fairly common species with a very wide range. No particular threats have been identified and the population is assumed to be stable. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

External links

Andean Flicker videos
on the Internet Bird Collection

VIREO * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071030101130/http://borderland-tours.com/v2/images/stories/borderland/gallery_photos/argentina/andean%20flicker.jpg Photo-High Resbr>Article
borderland-tours

– Description and photos {{Taxonbar, from=Q121758 Andean flicker Birds of the Andes Birds of the Puna grassland Andean flicker Taxonomy articles created by Polbot