smap 245: black-rumped flameback

the black-rumped flameback Dinopium benghalense is the most common woodpecker we see in our garden in southern India, as here on a coconut tree. typicallly they will climb up the trunk often in a spiral like fashion listening for sounds under the bark and when they hear something they hammer away to find larvae crawling around. the golden back flashes brilliantly in the sun, and as also indicated by the name it has a black rump. the throat is black and white. females like this one have the same coloration on the forehead as the throat while males have much larger red crown

the arrangement of the toes, two forward and two back help the woodpecker climb tree trunks. you might be inclined think that continually banging one's beak against the hard wood is painful to the woodpecker but they have a special anatomy with flexible skulls and spongy bones to absorb the impact as they drum away

sometimes they feed on fallen fruit as here with a coconut that didn't make the grade for oil pressing