Green-backed Woodpecker Campethera maculosa Scientific name definitions

A distinctive but poorly known Afrotropical woodpecker with a comparatively small head and short bill, the Green-backed Woodpecker has variably patterned underparts, either heavily barred olive-brown or white spotted black, and a green back variably spotted with white; males have a black-and-red crown, whereas it is all black in females. Five subspecies in two groups are recognized in this species, with variation in overall size, color and pattern of the upperparts, and the pattern of the underparts. This species has a very wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, from southwest Senegal and Guinea-Bissau across West and Central Africa, to South Sudan, and from southern Ethiopia to Mozambique and Zimbabwe, as well as Democratic Republic of the Congo, much of Zambia, and Angola; and is found in a wide range of habitats, from forest to thornbush savanna, including edges of primary and secondary forests, often near water in dry country and in dense swamp forest in the rainforest zone. Relatively little is known about the natural history of the Green-backed Woodpecker, but it feeds on arboreal termites and ants, mainly in the genus Crematogaster, and excavates its nest in trees or palms, as well as in ant and termite nests. It faces no immediate conservation concerns, and even seems to benefit from some forest clearance, as it favors edge, second growth, clearings, and wooded farmland.