Rufous-headed Woodpecker

The rufous-headed woodpecker is about 26 to 28 cm (10 to 11 in) long. Subspecies C. s. exsul weighs about 111 g (3.9 oz); weight data are lacking for the nominate. The sexes differ only on their heads: Adult males of both subspecies have a deep red malar patch and a larger one on their bushy crest; females do not have the red malar and have at most a trace of red on the crest. Both sexes of both subspecies have a rufous-chestnut head. They have a cream-buff patch low on the neck that extends down the side of the breast and a black lower throat and breast. Their hindneck and upper back are creamy buff to pale cinnamon-yellow with very wide black bars. Their lower back, rump, and uppertail coverts are yellow-buff to cinnamon-buff, sometimes with a few black streaks. Their wing coverts are black with cream-buff edges and narrow bars. Their primaries are brownish black with rufous bases, and their secondaries and tertials rufous-chestnut with black tips. Their tail is black, sometimes with pale barring on the outermost pair of feathers. On the nominate, the sides of the breast and the rest of their underparts are cream-buff to pale cinnamon-buff with heavy black bars on the former and black chevrons on the latter. Subspecies C. s. …

The nominate subspecies of rufous-headed woodpecker is found in eastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru. Subspecies C. s. exsul is found in southeastern Peru, in Brazil's Acre state, and in northern Bolivia's Beni and Cochabamba departments. The species inhabits humid tropical rainforest, usually along rivers and on their islands. In Peru and Brazil it is often associated with Chusquea and Guadua bamboo, while in Ecuador if favors landscapes with Cecropia trees, and an understorey of Gynerium cane with much Heliconia. In elevation it ranges only as high as about 300 m (1,000 ft).

The rufous-headed woodpecker is believed to feed mainly on bamboo ants, though its diet probably includes other insects as well. It typically forages singly or in pairs, and at any level of the forest and also on fallen logs. It probes and very forcefully pecks at trunks, branches, and bamboo to reveal its prey.