Gray-and-buff Woodpecker

About the Gray-and-buff Woodpecker

The grey-and-buff woodpecker (Hemicircus concretus) is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia (Sumatra and Borneo), Malaysia, southern Myanmar, and southern Thailand, but has become regionally extinct in Singapore. Its natural habitats are lowland and montane tropical or subtropical moist broadleaf forests.

The grey-and-buff woodpecker was formally described by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1821 and given the binomial name Picus concretus. The type locality is western and central Java. The species is now placed in the genus Hemicircus that was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson.

Two subspecies are recognised: H. c. sordidus (Eyton, 1845) – Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and nearby islands H. c. concretus (Temminck, 1821) – Java The species is sometimes split with H. concretus as the red-crested woodpecker and H. sordidus as the grey-and-buff woodpecker.

The species has a plump body and short rounded tail, and grows to a length of about 13.5 cm (5.3 in). The head appears large because of the slender neck and the large, cone-shaped crest. The head is largely grey, with a... Wikipedia →