Darjeeling Woodpecker Dendrocopos darjellensis is a mid-sized pied woodpecker with an unstreaked black back, yellowish neck sides, and no black border to rear of ear coverts. Underparts fulvous with heavy black streaking. Nape crimson in male, black in female. Necklaced WoodpeckerDryobates pernyii and Crimson-naped WoodpeckerDryobates cathpharius are smaller and have smaller bills and crimson spot on breast. Ranges Nepal to northern half of Burma, southwest China, and northern Indochina. In China, nominate in south Tibet (Yadong County) and desmursi southeast Tibet, western Yunnan, and northwest and southern Sichuan. Inhabits high-elevation forests, in China between 1200–4000 m (3,940–13,120 ft.). Photos: male desmursi, Dulong Gorge (27.882250, 98.415310), Yunnan, China, elev. 2450 m (8,020 ft.), June. (Craig Brelsford)Darjeeling Woodpecker is typically found, as here, on moss-covered trunks in oak-rhododendron and mixed broadleaf and coniferous forest. Dulong Gorge (27.882250, 98.415310), Yunnan. (Craig Brelsford)Comparison of nape and hindneck of three western China woodpeckers. All males shown here—Necklaced WoodpeckerDryobates pernyii (L), Crimson-naped WoodpeckerD. cathpharius (C), and Darjeeling Woodpecker Dendrocopos darjellensis (R)—have crimson napes. In Necklaced Woodpecker, red coloration is confined to nape, whereas Crimson-naped Woodpecker has reddish coloration on hindneck and neck sides. Darjeeling Woodpecker has black hindneck and yellow neck sides. (Craig Brelsford)
MacKinnon, John. Guide to the Birds of China. Oxford University Press, 2022.
Winkler, H. and D. A. Christie. Family Picidae (Woodpeckers). P. 483 in: del Hoyo, J., A. Elliot, and J. Sargatal, eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 7. Jacamars to Woodpeckers. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain, 2002.
