Bird Guide

Lesser Yellownape vs Streak-throated Woodpecker

Lesser Yellownape (Picus chlorolophus)

Lesser Yellownape

Picus chlorolophus

Medium65 gForest

The lesser yellownape is a largish species at 27 cm in length. It has a typical woodpecker shape. The upperparts are green apart from the bright yellow tufted nape. The neck and breast are green and the belly is whitish, finely barred with green. The rump and tail are blackish. The adult male lesser yellownape has a green head with a white throat. He has red markings above the eye and above the nape, and red moustachial stripes. Females have only a red patch above the ear coverts. Young birds are like the female, but duller. The subspecies occurring in peninsular India has a greyer head.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Lesser Yellownape
Recorded by Dinesh Chaudhary · Song · Dang (near Songir), Gujarat, India · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Koshy Koshy from Faridabad, Haryana, India · CC BY 2.0
Streak-throated Woodpecker (Picus xanthopygaeus)

Streak-throated Woodpecker

Picus xanthopygaeus

Medium100 gWoodland

A medium-sized, green woodpecker with streaked throat and scaly whitish underparts. Green above with yellowish rump, white supercilia and white and black moustache. Crown red in male, blackish in female. Tail dark and plain. Smallish, dark bill. The streak-breasted woodpecker has pale eyes, denser underpart streaking, and a thinner pale moustache stripe. The laced woodpecker has less underpart streaking and a warm yellowish hue all over the neck. The scaly-bellied woodpecker has streaked belly feathers, but unstreaked breast and throat plumage.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Streak-throated Woodpecker
Recorded by Ramkeekovai · Call · Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Kingshuk Mondal · CC BY 4.0

Where you might meet both

Learn this pair in the BeakBrain App

Photo and call practice. Coming soon to iPhone and Android.

Play today's Daily Bird

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Lesser Yellownape and Streak-throated Woodpecker.