thumb|Female in Hyderabad, India
The white-naped woodpecker (Chrysocolaptes festivus) is woodpecker which is a widespread but a scarce breeder in the Indian subcontinent.
It is associated with open forest and scrub with some trees. It nests in a tree hole, laying one or two white eggs.
Taxonomy
The white-naped woodpecker was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Goa, on the southwest coast of India. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Picus festivus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The white-naped woodpecker is now placed in the genus Chrysocolaptes that was introduced by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1843. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek khrusos meaning "gold" and kolaptēs meaning "chiseller". The specific epithet festivus is Latin for "festive" or "cheerful".
Two subspecies are recognised:
Like other woodpeckers, this species has a straight pointed bill, a stiff tail to provide support against tree trunks, and zygodactyl or "yoked" feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backward. The long tongue can dart forward to capture insects.
References
- Grimmett, Richard; Inskipp, Carol & Inskipp, Tim (1999): Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J..