Black-cheeked Woodpecker

Melanerpes pucherani (Malherbe, 1849)

Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Melanerpes pucherani, is a woodpecker of Middle America and South America, breeding from southern Mexico to western Ecuador. It lives in humid and wet evergreen forest, mature secondary growth, abandoned plantations, forest edges and clearings with scattered trees, and it also turns up in gardens. It is mainly a bird of mid-levels and the canopy, and is usually found between 700 and 900 m, though it can range higher. The species is a year-round resident. It is recognised by the contrasting head pattern shown by the two sexes, with males and females differing in the markings on the forehead, crown and nape.

Order

Piciformes

Family

Picidae — Woodpeckers

Breeding range

Middle America, South America: s Mexico to w Ecuador