Bird Guide

Yellow-browed Woodpecker vs Yellow-throated Woodpecker

Yellow-browed Woodpecker (Piculus aurulentus)

Yellow-browed Woodpecker

Piculus aurulentus

Medium75 gForest

The yellow-browed woodpecker is 21 to 22 cm (8.3 to 8.7 in) long and weighs 22 to 68 g (0.78 to 2.4 oz). Males and females have the same plumage except on their heads. Males are red from forehead to nape, have a narrow yellowish white supercilium, are dark olive green around the eye and onto the side of the neck, and successively below that a pale yellow stripe and a red malar band. Their chin and throat are pale golden. The female has an olive forehead and crown and much less red at the malar. Adults have olive green upperparts.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Gustavo Forreque · CC BY 2.0
Yellow-throated Woodpecker (Piculus flavigula)

Yellow-throated Woodpecker

Piculus flavigula

Small55 gForest

The yellow-throated woodpecker is 19 to 20 cm (7.5 to 7.9 in) long and weighs 44 to 63 g (1.6 to 2.2 oz). Males and females have the same plumage except on their heads. Males of the nominate subspecies P. f. flavigula are red from forehead to hindneck and on the malar (cheek); the former area has black feather bases showing through. The rest of the head including the chin and throat is bright golden-yellow. The female has red only on the nape and the rest of its crown is golden-yellow with green feather tips; its head is otherwise like the male's. Voice: The yellow-throated woodpecker's song is a "series of 1-7 high, hoarse, angry-sounding 'vraah' notes." It also makes "ar-carrying hissing 'queea' or 'shaa, gheh' or 'shreeyr', sometimes doubled" and a "rattle-type call 'kee' in series".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jquental · CC BY 2.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Yellow-browed Woodpecker and Yellow-throated Woodpecker.