The black-headed woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It typically inhabits deciduous and coniferous forests and is found in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Region
Mainland Southeast Asia
Typical Environment
Occurs from Myanmar through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam in a range of open woodlands. Prefers dry and mixed deciduous forests, dipterocarp woodland, forest edges, degraded secondary growth, and pine hills. It also uses wooded farmland, plantations, and scrub with scattered large trees. Foraging is typically on trunks and larger limbs, but it will descend to the ground to take ants and termites. It avoids dense closed-canopy rainforest and very open treeless areas.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 1800 m
Climate Zone
Tropical
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
This green woodpecker of mainland Southeast Asia is aptly named for its striking black head and reddish vent. It frequents open deciduous and pine forests where it hunts ants and termites on trunks, large branches, and occasionally on the ground. Its chiseling helps control wood-boring insects and contributes to forest health. Often seen in pairs, it may also join mixed-species flocks while foraging.
Female and male black-headed woodpeckers
Black-headed woodpecker on a tree
Temperament
alert and active
Flight Pattern
undulating with short rapid wingbeats and brief glides
Social Behavior
Usually seen singly or in pairs, sometimes in small family groups after breeding. Will join mixed-species foraging flocks in open woodland. Nests in cavities it excavates in softer or decaying trunks; clutch size is typically small, and both sexes share incubation and chick-rearing.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
Gives ringing whistles and sharp kyik or pik notes, often in short series. Also produces a soft, rapid drum roll on resonant wood, shorter and less forceful than some larger woodpeckers.
