Okinawa Woodpecker

This is a medium-sized (31 cm), dark woodpecker. It is dark brown in color with red-tipped feathers. It has white spots on the primaries. The head is a paler brown, with a dark red crown on the male and a blackish-brown one on the female. The call is a sharp whit call and a variable kyu-kyu kup kup kup or kyu kyu kup.

This woodpecker primarily lives in undisturbed mature primary forests; mostly in the subtropical evergreen forests of Yambaru's central mountains. It can occasionally be seen in secondary forests as well. It prefers areas with soft, decaying wood and seems to avoid those with many conifer trees.

The Okinawa woodpecker prefers to forage nearer to the ground, mostly below 5 metres (16 ft). It clings firmly to bark with its zygodactyl feet (two toes forward, two toes back) and uses its stiff tail feathers to brace itself against the tree as it strikes with its beak, repeatedly hammering at trunks, stumps, and bamboo stalks — leaving them pitted with holes 3 to 4 centimetres (~1.5 in) deep — as it excavates boring insects and their larvae. Male woodpecker will often search for spiders and cicada nymphs on the ground while females will excavate boring beetles from tree trunks. Its diet consists of large arthropods, moths, centipedes, beetle larvae, spiders, and even gecko nestlings. It will occasionally forage for fruits, berries, acorns, other nuts, and seeds.