Yellow-crowned woodpecker

The yellow-crowned woodpecker (Leiopicus mahrattensis) or Mahratta woodpecker is a species of small pied woodpecker found in the Indian subcontinent. It is the only species placed in the genus Leiopicus.

Yellow-crowned woodpecker
Male yellow-crowned woodpecker in Mangaon
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Picidae
Genus:	Leiopicus Bonaparte, 1854
Species:	L. mahrattensis
Binomial name
Leiopicus mahrattensis (Latham, 1801)
Synonyms
Dendrocopos mahrattensis

Taxonomy

Female at Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary

Female at Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary

The yellow-crowned woodpecker was originally described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name Picus mahrattensis.^[2] It is now the only species placed in the genus Leiopicus that was introduced by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1854.^[3] The specific epithet mahrattensis is from Marhatta, a historical region in the modern Indian state of Maharashtra. The genus name Leiopicus combines the Classical Greek leios meaning "smooth" or "beardless" and pikos meaning "woodpecker".^[4] The yellow-crowned woodpecker is closely related to the woodpeckers in the genus Dendrocoptes.^[5]

Description

A medium-small (17.5 cm, 6.9 inches, 28-46 grams, 1–1.6 ounces), pale-headed, pied woodpecker. Upper-parts black, heavily spotted and barred white. Underparts dark, streaked dingy white with red belly patch. Irregular brown cheek and neck patches. Female has yellowish crown and nape. In male nape scarlet and fore-crown yellow.

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Leiopicus mahrattensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22681092A92892393. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
2. Latham, John (1801). Supplementum indicis ornithologici sive systematis ornithologiae (in Latin). London: Leigh & Sotheby. p. xxxi.
3. Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1854). "Quadro dei volucri zigodattili ossia passeri a piedi scansori". In de Luca, Serafino; Müller, D. (eds.). L'Ateneo Italiano; raccolta di documenti e memorie relative al progresso delle scienze fisiche (in Italian). Vol. 2. Parigi [Paris]: Victor Masson. pp. 116–129 [123].
4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 221, 238. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
5. Shakya, S.B.; Fuchs, J.; Pons, J.-M.; Sheldon, F.H. (2017). "Tapping the woodpecker tree for evolutionary insight". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 116: 182–191. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2017.09.005. PMID 28890006.