The red-rumped woodpecker (Veniliornis kirkii) is a species of bird in the subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found from Costa Rica south to Peru and east to Brazil, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Taxonomy and systematics
The International Ornithological Committee and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World place the red-rumped woodpecker in the genus Veniliornis. However, starting in 2018, the American Ornithological Society and the Clements taxonomy moved all species of the genus Veniliornis into genus Dryobates.
The taxonomic systems agree that the red-rumped woodpecker has these five subspecies:
V. (or D.) k. neglectus Bangs, 1901
V. (or D.) k. cecilii (Malherbe, 1849)
V. (or D.) k. continentalis Hellmayr, 1906
V. (or D.) k. monticola Hellmayr, 1918
V. (or D.) k. kirkii (Malherbe, 1845)
Description
The red-rumped woodpecker is about 15 to 16 cm (5.9 to 6.3 in) long and weighs 30 to 42 g (1.1 to 1.5 oz). Males and females have the same plumage except on their heads. Males of the nominate subspecies kirkii have a red crown and nape with some dusky brown or dark gray feather tips. The female has a dark brown crown with a tinge of green. Adults of both sexes have mostly olive-brown faces with whitish streaks. Their upperparts are mostly golden olive-brown with some yellow and red feather tips and crimson-red rump and uppertail coverts. Their flight feathers are dark brown with greenish-olive edges. Also, their tails are dark brown with pale buff bars on the outer pairs of feathers. Furthermore, their underparts are barred with dark brown and whitish, with the whitish ones wider on the belly. The iris is dark brown to red-brown, the longish beak blackish with a paler mandible, and the legs are grayish with a green to blue tinge. Juveniles resemble adults except that both sexes have some red on the crown, the male more than the female.
Subspecies monticola is larger than the nominate and has heavy blackish barring on...
