Heart-Spotted Woodpecker is an Indian bird and it bears a scientific name "Hemicircus canente" concentrated in the separated parts of Asian countries and some parts of Indian states.
Description of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
A subspecies cordatus based on the description by Thomas C. Jerdon from a specimen from the Western Ghats is not considered distinct and the populations differ slightly in plumage colour and vary clonally in size.
Structure of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
Heart-Spotted Woodpecker has a contrasting black and white pattern, a distinctively stubby body with a large wedge-shaped head making them easy to identify while their frequent calling make them easy to detect as they forage for invertebrates under the bark of the sleder outer branches of trees.
Movements of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
Heart-Spotted Woodpeckers move about in pairs or small groups and are often found in mixed-species foraging flocks.
Distribution of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
Heart-Spotted Woodpeckers have a wide distribution across Asia with populations in the forests of south-western and central India which are slightly separated from their ranges in the Himalayan Mountain Range and Southeast Asia.
Size of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
Heart-Spotted Woodpecker has a small, uniquely shaped, black and buff woodpecker with a large crest making the head look large for the short body and tail. The both males and female Heart-Spotted Woodpeckers are predominantly black with heart-shaped black spots on white shoulders with broad white scapular patches and barring of flight feathers.
Female Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
The female Heart-Spotted Woodpecker has the forehead and crown buffy white while it is black on males. The throat is whitish and the under parts are dark olive grey. A tuft of feathers on the back are specialized and are lipid rich which causes the feathers to stick together in preserved specimens.
Feathers of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
Heart-Spotted Woodpecker has special feathers or "fat quills" that sometimes make the rump feathers appear buff and may be a form of "cosmetic colouration" and the secretion is said to have a pleasant smell but the functional significance is unknown.
Habitat of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
The natural habitat of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. They are found in the Himalayan forests of India, Bangladesh and extend into Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Within India, they are also found in the Western Ghats Mountain Range in India and the forests of Central India.
Pairs of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
Heart-Spotted Woodpeckers forage in pairs, sometimes joining mixed-species foraging flocks. They fly from tree to tree in a sharply bounding flight giving a head-heavy appearance. They forage on thin branches and call often.
Feeding of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
Heart-Spotted Woodpeckers feed mainly on insects under bark but have been known to peck the pods of Cassia fistula to obtain insect larvae.
Calls of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
The calls of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker include a sharp twee-twee-twee sometimes leading to a trill of several notes, a nasal ki-yeew and repeated su-sie calls.
Breeding Season of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
Heart-Spotted Woodpecker drums infrequently during the breeding season, mainly during winter and before the Monsoons.
Nests of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker
The nest of Heart-Spotted Woodpecker is bored in a dead branch with a narrow 3 to 4 cm diameter opening and the tunnel going down obliquely about 20 cm before widening into a chamber. Nests may sometimes be built in fence posts. The usual clutch is 2 or 3 eggs, which are unmarked white.
