BIRD SPECIES

Black-rumped Flameback

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Dinopium benghalense

The Black-rumped Flameback is also known as the Lesser Golden-backed Woodpecker or Lesser Goldenback. 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. 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 grayish eye patch. Unlike the Greater Flameback it has no dark moustachial stripes.

Like other woodpeckers, this species has a straight pointed bill, a stiff tail to provide support against tree trunks, and zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backward. The long tongue can be darted forward to capture insects.

It is a large species at 10.24 - 11.42 inches in length and weighs around 86 - 133 grams.

Adult males have 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.

It has a characteristic rattling-whinnying call and an undulating flight.

Feed on insects mainly beetle larvae from under the bark, visit termite mounds and sometimes feed on nectar.

It is associated with open forest and cultivation. They are often seen in urban areas with wooded avenues.

It is one of the few woodpeckers that are seen in urban areas.

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 somewhat rare in the Kutch and desert region of Rajasthan.

The nest hole is usually excavated by the birds and has a horizontal entrance and descends into a cavity.

Sometimes they 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 3 and the eggs are elongate and glossy white. The eggs hatch after about 11 days of incubation.  

SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://www.oiseaux.net