Common name: Lineated Woodpecker

Type: Bird

Family: Picidae

Range: When you consider about the living range of this bird throughout the world, you would probably come up with the result as southern Senora, southern Brazil, Trinidad, Paraguay, south Mexico, southeastern Bolivia, northwestern Peru, Costa Rica and northeastern Argentina. Most of the places are treated as the native for the bird.

Size: The lineated Woodpecker is normally 31.5 to 36 centimeters (12.4 to 14 inches) long.

Weight: The weight of the bird varies geographically. It weights around 136-264 grams depends on the residence.

Diet: The Lineated Woodpecker normally eats the insects. It usually collects insects from the bark crevices with the help of sharp and sticky tongue. It eats the insects like ants, beetle larvae and termites. Apart from the insects, it would also eat nuts, seeds from Heliconia, berries and fruits.

Average lifespan: Normally the lifespan of the Lineated Woodpecker is unknown one. But a large woodpecker like this can live up to 11 to 15 years based on the environmental features.

Habitat: The Lineated Woodpecker bird normally inhabits in the dry forest areas, humid forests, woods and transitional forests. You can also find this bird in mangroves along with the coast side and inland forests. It prefers to live in the open area such as secondary forests, forest edges and pasture. It also lives in the scattered trees of semi-open areas.

Since it occupies forest edge and river edges you can easily find in the areas of Costa Rica. It doesn’t even want to live in the interior lower land forests, but occupies gallery forest and thorn-scrub. We can find this up to 2,100 meters of elevation from the ground.

Breeding/Reproduction: The Lineated Woodpecker is a resident breeding bird. The pairs of Lineated Woodpecker live together throughout the year. The breeding season of these birds vary depending on the geographical range. It normally breeds in the season of February to April in Suriname and Trinidad, March to April in Panama and April to May in Belize. In order to breed, both sexes excavate cavity in a dead tree above 2-30 meters from the ground. Both the sexes involve in the nest excavation.

They form the nest as about 9 diameter entrance, 45 cm deep and 13×18 cm wide. Normally the female lays three eggs. The incubation of the eggs can be shared by both the sexes as 2-3 hours in the daytime and in the night time male only incubate. The feeding for chicks can be done by both parents in the interval of one hour by regurgitation. But most of the time female does the feeding since male guards the nest from enemies. The cleaning of nest by removing the fecal materials can be done by both parents. The incubation period is not known.

When you think about the Lineated Woodpecker there are many things that would probably come into your mind. The appearance of this woodpecker resembles the Pileated woodpecker available in the United States and Canada. The adult male Lineated Woodpecker is mainly black in the above, base bill with whitish strike lines and red crest. Whitish strikes are also extended to down the neck and shoulders of the male. Under parts of the woodpecker are colored as white and they are heavily barred with black. When the bird is flying it shows white color in the wings. From the bill to throat it has red strike and also the forehead is red in color.

In adult females most of the plumage features are in black. The forehead of female Lineated Woodpecker is black and the moustachial area also in the same color. The young female bird has dusky eyes in the color of dark brown. The young male has black barring on under parts and blackish moustachial stripes.

If you think about the sounds of Lineated Woodpecker, both the sexes perform the drumming in an efficient way. They perform up to 5 to 8 rolls of tape slowly towards the end of sound. The normal sound of woodpecker is loud and it provides the laughing series as yih-yih or nyeh-nyeh with rising and falling tones. This typical tone would probably get the attention of most of the people who visit the parks of Costa Rica.

The Lineated Woodpecker normally gets the feed through the low and higher trees. Sometimes we can see flocks of 5 to 6 woodpeckers searching for foods in the trees. During the nest selection it performs drumming and taping with the sound. When both the sexes go for the turn during incubation, we can see them touching with the bills. The drumming of the woodpeckers would be acted as the bridge between mates. They communicate each other with that sound only.

There are many subspecies of Lineated Woodpeckers you can see throughout the American countries and are,

• L.scapularis: You can find this species in south Sonora to Guerrero that resides in the Western part of Mexico. Normally the Lineated Woodpecker has white stripes on the sides of face, but that is reduced in this species. It also differs by pale colored bill and horn. It is also smaller than similis and lineatus.

• L.fuscipennis: It is the species that you can find in the northwestern Peru and western Ecuador. This is the species as smaller than lineatus. It is the species with dark bill and brown plumage.

• L.similis: You can normally find this species in eastern Mexico and southern Mexico and also from south to northwestern Costa Rica. It is the species with under parts as the buffy one and smaller than other species.

• L.erythrops: This species available in north and northeastern Argentina, eastern Paraguay and southeastern Brazil. Normally in this kind the white scapular lines are reduced.

• L.lineatus: This is the species with dark bill and larger than other species. You can find this species in south central Brazil, south to eastern Peru, northern Paraguay, eastern and southern Costa Rica.

Since these species available in the Costa Rica, you can enjoy the beauty of nature in an efficient and reliable way. Whenever you visit Costa Rica, it would be better to not lose the pleasant moments that you get because of these Lineated Woodpeckers. As they are available in the following National Parks such as

Braulio Carrillo National Park
Cahuita National Park
Carara National Park
Caño Negro National Wildlife Refuge
Manuel Antonio National Park
Corcovado National Park
La Selva Biological Reserve
Palo Verde National Park
Tortuguero National Park
Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve
Santa Rosa Nacional Park
Robert & Catherine Wilson Botanical Garden

When you visit Costa Rica, don’t miss Lineated Woodpeckers. They can be found in numbers and provide beautiful views. To married couples, they can are mesmerizing. Lineated Woodpeckers can impart romantic moments in new married couple’s minds.