The Story
I photographed this Spot-breasted Woodpecker (Colaptes punctigula), also called the Spot-breasted Flicker, near Santander de Quilichao in Cauca, Colombia. It prefers sparse, open woodland and plantations to dense forest and feeds almost entirely on ants and their larvae and pupae, often foraging in pairs or family groups. IUCN lists it as Least Concern with a stable population. It is a year-round resident and in Colombia is found up to about 1,500 meters. Its flight feathers are brown with pale barring and yellow shafts.
I photographed it with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −0.5 EV. Because it prefers more open woodland, it suffers relatively little from forest clearance.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Spot-breasted Woodpecker (Colaptes punctigula) belongs to the family Picidae (Woodpeckers) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List
