Imperial woodpecker
| Imperial woodpecker | |
|---|---|
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| Male and female specimens | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Piciformes |
| Family: | Picidae |
| Genus: | Campephilus |
| Species: | C. imperialis |
| Binomial name | |
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Campephilus imperialis (Gould, 1832) |
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The imperial woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis) is a member of the woodpecker family, Picidae. The genus Campephilus is essentially a tropical one, embracing 13 species, including the imperial woodpecker. If it is not extinct, it is the world's largest woodpecker species, at 56–60 cm (22–23.5 in) long. Researchers have discovered that the imperial woodpecker has slow climbing strides and a fast wing-flap rate compared with other woodpeckers. Owing to its close taxonomic relationship, and a similarity in appearance, to the ivory-billed woodpecker, it is sometimes called the Mexican ivorybill, but this name is also used for the pale-billed woodpecker. The large and conspicuous bird has long been known to the native inhabitants of Mexico and was called cuauhtotomomi in Nahuatl, uagam by the Tepehuán, and cumecócari by the Tarahumara.
The imperial woodpeckers typical size ranges from 56 to 60 cm, an enormous, stunning black-and-white woodpecker. The male imperial woodpecker has a red-sided crest, centered black, but otherwise mostly black, with large white wing-patch, thin white "braces" on its mantle and a huge ivory bill. They are all black except for the inner primaries, which are white-tipped, the white secondaries, and a white scapular stripe which, unlike the ivory-billed woodpecker, does not extend onto the neck. The female is similar, but her crest is all black and (unlike the female ivorybill) recurved at the top, lacking red. Much larger than any other sympatric woodpecker, it is the only woodpecker in the area with solid black underparts. Its voice is reportedly toy-trumpet-like. The bird was once widespread and, until the early 1950s, not uncommon throughout the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, from western Sonora and Chihuahua southwards to Jalisco and Michoacán. There is a chance that imperialis followed the mountain region northward into southern Arizona.
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Wikipedia