Checkered Woodpecker

The checkered woodpecker is about 14 cm (5.5 in) long and weighs 30 to 37 g (1.1 to 1.3 oz). Males and females have the same plumage except on their heads. Adults of both sexes of the nominate subspecies V. m. mixtus have a blackish-brown forehead and crown, a blackish-brown hindneck, and a generally white face with a dark brown stripe back from the eye and a thin dark brown malar stripe. Males have some white or buffish white streaks on the crown and a red or orange-red nape. The female's nape is black where the male's is red and its crown is solid black. Both sexes' upperparts are blackish-brown, with whitish or brownish-white bars. Their flight feathers are deep brown with white bars. Their tail is brownish-black with narrow white bars. Their underparts are white with a yellow or buff tinge, and dark brown streaks on the breast and belly, brown bars on the flanks, and thin brown streaks on the undertail coverts. Juveniles are duller and darker than adults, with broken bars on their upperparts and heavy streaks and bars on their dull white underparts. Both sexes have red on the crown (not the nape), though the female's patch is smaller. Subspecies V. m. berlepschi is similar to the nominate, but its brown parts are somewhat darker, the patch behind the eye is larger, and its underparts are a purer white. V. m. …

The subspecies of checkered woodpecker are found thus:

V. m. cancellatus (Wagler, 1829), from extreme eastern Bolivia into eastern and southern Brazil. V. m. mixtus (Boddaert, 1783), eastern Argentina, extreme southeastern Brazil, and western Uruguay V. m. malleator (Wetmore, 1922), the Chaco Basin of southeastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, and northern Argentina V. m. berlepschi (Hellmayr, 1915), central and eastern Argentina The checkered woodpecker primarily inhabits humid open woodlands and gallery forest, but also occurs in savanna and cerrado woodlands. Subspecies V. m. berlepschi inhabits arid bushlands characterized by Prosopis mesquite. In elevation the species ranges from near sea level to about 600 m (2,000 ft). Subspecific differences run contrary to Gloger's rule. V. m. malleator and V. m. berlepschi, which inhabit more arid habitat, have darker and more prominent underside patterning, whereas the other two subspecies which are birds of mesic or riparian woodland are paler overall.

Checkered woodpeckers forage singly and in pairs, usually on small branches of bushes and trees. They mostly find their diet of insects and seeds by gleaning and probing.