EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Nubian Woodpecker

Nubian Woodpecker (Campethera nubica)
Rift Valley, Kenya, East Africa

Explanation:  This beautiful African woodpecker appeared in an open thorned Acacia woodland along Lake Baringo in the Rift Valley of Kenya.  This is a Nubian Woodpecker, an uncommon to locally common denizen of open woodlands throughout eastern Africa. 

It is identified from the round spots on the chest, clear belly, olive-gray back, and scarlet crown.  And it is instantly recognizable as a male because of the long red malar stripe below the eye (it is white in the female).  

Like most woodpeckers, it was foraging on insects along the bark of the tree trunks and branches.  
  

   
As typical of most woodpeckers, notice the use of its stiff tail feathers
to prop and support the body as it climbed up this Acacia tree trunk.
The tail feathers are specially adapted for this purpose.

  
The name Nubian refers a region of eastern and northeastern Africa.  Nubia was an ancient kingdom inhabiting the upper Nile River valley along Egypt and Sudan.

The Nubian Woodpecker does not seem to be vulnerable, as its population is large and widespread.  

This species is an important creator of tree cavities that can then be occupied by a wide array of secondary cavity-nesting species of the region, such as Pearl-spotted Owlet, various native starlings, small falcons, and many other species.