The black-rumped flameback (''Dinopium benghalense''), also known as the lesser golden-backed woodpecker or lesser goldenback, is a
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 region ...
found widely distributed in the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India ...
. It is one of the few woodpeckers that are seen in urban areas. It has a characteristic rattling-whinnying call and an undulating flight. It is the only golden-backed woodpecker with a black throat and a black rump.
Taxonomy
The black-rumped flameback was described and illustrated by two pre-Linnaean English naturalists from a dried specimen that had been brought to London. In 1738
Eleazar Albin
Eleazar Albin (fl. 1690 – c. 1742)Michael A. Salmon, Peter Marren, Basil Harley. ''The Aurelian Legacy'' (University of California Press, 2000) pp. 109-110. was an English naturalist and watercolourist illustrator who wrote and illustra ...
included the bird as the "Bengall Woodpecker" in his ''A Natural History of Birds'' and in 1751
George Edwards included the "Spotted Indian Woodpecker" in his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. The black-rumped flameback was
formally described by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...
in 1758 in the
tenth edition of his ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nom ...
'' under the
binomial name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''Picus benghalensis''. He cited the earlier descriptions by Albin and Edwards. This woodpecker is now placed in the genus ''
Dinopium
''Dinopium'' is a genus of birds in the woodpecker family Picidae. The species are found in South and Southeast Asia.
The genus was introduced by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1814 to accommodate the common flameback ( ...
'' that was introduced by the French
polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultima ...
in 1814.
Five
subspecies are recognised:
[
*The nominate subspecies (''D. b. benghalense'') is found across India in the low elevations up to about 1000 m.
*The race in the arid northwestern ]India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
and Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, ''D. b. dilutum'' (Blyth Blyth may refer to:
People
* Blyth (surname)
* Blythe (given name)
Places Australia
* Blyth, South Australia, a small town
Canada
* Blyth, Ontario, a village
United Kingdom
* Blyth, Northumberland, a town
** Blyth Valley (UK Parliament ...
, 1852), has pale yellow upperparts, a long crest and whiter underparts than the nominate race of the Gangetic plains. The upperparts have less spots. It prefers to breed in old gnarled tamarisks, ''Acacia'' and ''Dalbergia'' trunks.
*The Southern Peninsular form, ''D. b. puncticolle'' ( Malherbe, 1845), has a black throat with small triangular white spots and bright golden-yellow upperparts.
*The subspecies found in the Western Ghats is separated as ''D. b. tehminae'' ( Whistler & Kinnear, 1934), (named after the wife of Salim Ali
Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali (12 November 1896 – 20 June 1987) was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Sometimes referred to as the "''Birdman of India''", Salim Ali was the first Indian to conduct systematic bird surveys across Indi ...
) and is more olive above, has fine spots on the black throat and the wing-covert spots are not distinct.
*The northern Sri Lankan race, ''D. b. jaffnense'' (Whistler, 1944), has a shorter beak.[
The Sri Lankan ]red-backed flameback
The Red-backed flameback, Lesser Sri Lanka flameback, Sri Lanka red-backed woodpecker or Ceylon red-backed woodpecker (''Dinopium psarodes'') is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is endemic to Sri Lanka, only absent in the far-north. ...
(''Dinopium psarodes'') was formerly treated as a subspecies of the black-rumped flameback.[ It has a crimson back and all the dark markings are blacker and more extensive. It sometimes intergrades with ''D. b. jaffnense'' near ]Puttalam
Puttalam ( si, පුත්තලම, translit=Puttalama; ta, புத்தளம், translit=Puttaḷam) is the largest town in Puttalam District, North Western Province, Sri Lanka. Puttalam is the administrative capital of the Puttalam ...
, Kekirawa
Kekirawa Divisional Secretariat is a Divisional Secretariat of Anuradhapura District, of North Central Province, Sri Lanka.
History
Prehisoric period
Kekirawa has a long history which goes back to the pre-historical era. The ruins of th ...
and Trincomalee
Trincomalee (; ta, திருகோணமலை, translit=Tirukōṇamalai; si, ත්රිකුණාමළය, translit= Trikuṇāmaḷaya), also known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee Dis ...
.
Description
The black-rumped flameback is a large species at 26–29 cm in length. It has a typical woodpecker shape, and the golden yellow wing coverts are distinctive. The rump is black and not red as in the greater flameback
The greater flameback (''Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus'') also known as greater goldenback, large golden-backed woodpecker is a woodpecker species. It occurs widely in the northern Indian subcontinent, eastwards to southern China, the Malay Penin ...
. The underparts are white with dark chevron markings. The black throat finely marked with white immediately separates it from other golden backed woodpeckers in the Indian region. The head is whitish with a black nape and throat, and there is a greyish eye patch. Unlike the greater flameback it has no dark moustachial stripes.[
The adult male has a red crown and crest. Females have a black forecrown spotted with white, with red only on the rear crest. Young birds are like the female, but duller.]
Like other woodpeckers, this species has a straight pointed bill, a stiff tail to provide support against tree trunks, and zygodactyl
In biology, dactyly is the arrangement of digits (fingers and toes) on the hands, feet, or sometimes wings of a tetrapod animal. It comes from the Greek word δακτυλος (''dáktylos'') = "finger".
Sometimes the ending "-dactylia" is use ...
feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backward. The long tongue can be darted forward to capture insects.[
The black-rumped flameback is the only golden-backed woodpecker with both a black throat and a black rump.]
Leucistic
Leucism () is a wide variety of conditions that result in the partial loss of pigmentation in an animal—causing white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales, or cuticles, but not the eyes. It is occasionally spelled ...
birds have been recorded. Two specimens of male birds from the northern Western Ghats have been noted to have red-tipped feathers on the malar region almost forming a malar stripe. A female specimen from Lucknow has been noted to have grown an abnormal downcurved hoopoe-like bill.
Distribution and habitat
This flameback
The flamebacks or goldenbacks are large woodpeckers which are resident breeders in tropical southern Asia. They derive their English names from their golden or crimson backs.
However, the two flameback genera ''Dinopium'' and ''Chrysocolaptes'' ...
is found mainly on the plains going up to an elevation of about 1200m in Pakistan, India south of the Himalayas and east till the western Assam valley and Meghalaya, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It is associated with open forest and cultivation. They are often seen in urban areas with wooded avenues.[ It is somewhat rare in the Kutch and desert region of Rajasthan.
]
Behaviour and ecology
This species is normally seen in pairs or small parties and sometimes joins 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 of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These ar ...
s. They forage from the ground to the canopy. They feed on insects mainly beetle larvae from under the bark, visit termite mounds and sometimes feed on nectar. As they make hopping movements around branches, they often conceal themselves from potential predators. They adapt well in human-modified habitats making use of artificial constructions fallen fruits and even food scraps.
The breeding season varies with weather and is between February and July. They frequently drum during the breeding season. The nest hole is usually excavated by the birds and has a horizontal entrance and descends into a cavity. Sometimes birds may usurp the nest holes of other birds. Nests have also been noted in mud embankments. The eggs are laid inside the unlined cavity. The normal clutch is three and the eggs are elongate and glossy white. The eggs hatch after about 11 days of incubation. The chicks leave the nest after about 20 days.
In culture
In Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
these woodpeckers go by the generic name of ''kæralaa'' in Sinhala. In some parts of the island, it is also called ''kottoruwa'' although it more often refers to barbets. This bird appears in a 4.50 rupee
Rupee is the common name for the currencies of
India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, ...
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
n postal stamp. It also appears in a 3.75 Taka postal stamp from Bangladesh.
References
External links
*
Photos and videos
{{Taxonbar, from=Q178434
black-rumped flameback
The black-rumped flameback (''Dinopium benghalense''), also known as the lesser golden-backed woodpecker or lesser goldenback, is a woodpecker found widely distributed in the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the few woodpeckers that are seen ...
Birds of South Asia
black-rumped flameback
The black-rumped flameback (''Dinopium benghalense''), also known as the lesser golden-backed woodpecker or lesser goldenback, is a woodpecker found widely distributed in the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the few woodpeckers that are seen ...
black-rumped flameback
The black-rumped flameback (''Dinopium benghalense''), also known as the lesser golden-backed woodpecker or lesser goldenback, is a woodpecker found widely distributed in the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the few woodpeckers that are seen ...