The Story
I photographed this Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia on June 23, 2017. It is a cooperative breeder, living and nesting in family groups of up to 15 birds. Many populations store acorns in granaries, trees or wooden structures drilled with hundreds to thousands of holes. Its call sounds almost like laughter. Caldas has 837 bird species on record, about 45 percent of the birds of Colombia. Manizales sits on the steep ridges of Colombia’s Central Cordillera, near the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, which rises to 5,321 meters.
I took this with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500. IUCN lists the Acorn Woodpecker as Least Concern with an increasing population, and Manizales keeps forest fragments inside the city, such as the Ecoparque Los Alcázares Arenillo, declared an area of environmental interest in 1995.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) 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 2024), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List