The Japanese pygmy woodpecker or pygmy woodpecker (''Yungipicus kizuki'') is a species of

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family (biology), 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 ...

. It is found in coniferous and deciduous forests in Russia, China, Korea and Japan. This species has also been placed in the genus ''

Dendrocopos ''Dendrocopos'' is a widespread genus of woodpeckers from Asia, Europe and Northern Africa. The species range from the Philippines to the British Isles. Taxonomy The genus ''Dendrocopos'' was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Lud ...

'' or ''

Picoides ''Picoides'' is a genus of woodpeckers (family Picidae) that are native to Eurasia and North America, commonly known as three-toed woodpeckers. Taxonomy The genus ''Picoides'' was introduced by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépè ...

''. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) has assessed it as a least-concern species.

Taxonomy

This species was described by Temminck in 1836. The

IOC World Bird List ''Birds of the World: Recommended English Names'' is a paperback book written by Frank Gill and Minturn Wright on behalf of the International Ornithologists' Union. The book is an attempt to produce a standardized set of English names for all bi ...

recognizes the following subspecies: ''Yungipicus kizuki permutatus'', ''Y. k. seebohmi'', ''Y. k. nippon'', ''Y. k. shikokuensis'', ''Y. k. kizuki'' (the nominate subspecies), ''Y. k. matsudairai'', ''Y. k. kotataki'', ''Y. k. amamii'', ''Y. k. nigrescens'' and ''Y. k. orii''. The species has previously been placed in genera ''

'' and ''

''.

Description

The Japanese pygmy woodpecker is long. The crown is grey-brown. A white

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...

starts above the eye and continues to the neck and breast. The ear coverts are brown, and there is a white moustachial stripe and a grey-brown malar stripe. The chin and throat are white. The mantle and back are dark brown, with white bars. The upperwing coverts and

flight feather Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tai ...

s are brownish-black and have white bars. The breast has a brownish suffusion. The breast, flank and belly have variable streaks. The tail is blackish, with white bars on its outer feathers. The iris is chestnut, the beak is blackish and the legs are grey. The male has a small red mark on the side of its nape, and the female does not. The female's beak, wings and tail are longer than the male's. The juvenile bird's throat is often streaked. The bird becomes smaller and darker from the north of its range to the south. Its call is a high "tsi-tsi-tsi" and it has a quick drum.

Distribution and habitat

This woodpecker is found in Korea, northeastern China, southeastern Siberia,

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...

, Japan and the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands (Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara and A ...

. It occurs up to in elevation, and its habitat consists of many types of coniferous and deciduous forests, including lowland, upland and riverine forests, and also parks and gardens.

Behaviour

The Japanese pygmy woodpecker occurs in pairs and

mixed-species foraging flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock (birds), flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while fora ...

s, searching on trees for invertebrates, such as spiders, caterpillars, ants and aphids, and berries. Its calls are ''khit'' and ''kzz'' notes, and it

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

weakly in short bursts. Breeding starts in March in southern Japan and in late May in northern Japan. A nest hole is excavated in a dead branch. The eggs are white, measuring about by . Five to seven white eggs are laid and then incubated for 12 to 14 days.

Fledging Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight. This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnerable c ...

occurs after three weeks.

Status

The species has a large range and a stable population, so the IUCN has assessed it as a

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

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q27074882 Japanese pygmy woodpecker Birds of Japan Birds of Korea Birds of Manchuria Japanese pygmy woodpecker Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN