The crimson-backed flameback or greater Sri Lanka flameback (''Chrysocolaptes stricklandi'') is a species of bird in the woodpecker family

Picidae 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. ...

that is endemic to

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. The crimson-backed flameback and the

greater flameback The greater flameback (''Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus''), also known as the greater goldenback or large golden-backed woodpecker, is a woodpecker species. It occurs widely in the northern Indian subcontinent, eastwards to southern China, the Mal ...

(''Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus'') were both formerly considered as subspecies of the buff-spotted flameback (''Chrysocolaptes lucidus''). Nigel Collar (2011, p. 33) notes the differences between ''Chrysocolaptes stricklandi'' and ''Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus'' as being that the former has a crimson rather than golden upper body plumage, a yellow rather than a black beak, a weaker supramoustachial stripe and a less noticeable, even spotty, eyebrow stripe.

Notes

It takes its latin name (formerly ''Brachypternus Stricklandi'') from

Hugh Edwin Strickland Hugh Edwin Strickland (2 March 1811 – 14 September 1853) was an English geologist, ornithology, ornithologist, naturalist and systematist. Through the British Association, he proposed a series of rules for the nomenclature of organisms in zool ...

(see Layard 1854 p. 29).

References

crimson-backed flameback Birds of Sri Lanka Endemic birds of Sri Lanka crimson-backed flameback {{woodpecker-stub