Golden-backed Woodpecker

Pecking a coconut tree

Lesser Golden-backed Woodpecker is very common woodpecker around rural Malnad. I see this a lot on coconut trees, where they are easy to identify. These birds are not afraid to come close to the houses - you can see these on a coconut tree in your backyard also.

There are actually two types of woodpeckers that are very similar to each other: Common Golden-backed woodpecker and Lesser Golden-backed Woodpecker. The Common woodpecker has a crimson rump.

As a bonus to being a common bird, it also has a dazzling back - golden coloured back and a red tuft on its head. If you take a closer look, you can see that it's muscle structure around the bill is really strong, and is well-suited to probe inside the trees. Woodpeckers extend their tongues into the holes in the trees and pick out their food in the form of insects.

Some facts about woodpeckers are astonishing: Even though I had heard a lot about these as everybody else, I had not realized that I had never seen these perched on a horizontal branch till Poorna Chandra Tejaswi pointed that out in his book - almost always people see these in vertical position. Also, Tejaswi notes that the sound they make when banging on trees is actually unique to each sub-specie, with specific frequencies , amounting to a language of their own. Also, their tails are exceptionally well-built, and they can actually use them as support while climbing or perching vertically on the trees.

These can also be seen along the railway track from Shimoga to Bangalore - in fact, that railway stretch is really good for birdwatching!!

Scientific name for the Lesser Golden-backed Woodpecker is Dinopium benghalense, whereas Common Golden-backed Woodpecker is known as Dinopium javanense.