Heart-spotted Woodpecker
Hemicircus canente
- Family
- Woodpeckers (Picidae)
- Order
- Piciformes
Overview
The heart-spotted woodpecker (Hemicircus canente) is a species of bird in the woodpecker family. It has a contrasting black and white plumage, a distinctively stubby body and a large wedge-shaped head making it easy to identify while its frequent calling make it easy to detect as it forage for invertebrates under the bark of the slender outer branches of trees. They move about in pairs or small groups and are often found in mixed-species foraging flocks. They have a wide distribution across Asia with populations in the forests of southwestern and central India which are slightly separated from their ranges in the Himalayas and Southeast Asia.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Humid forest of peninsular India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Indochina.
Range description: AviList Global Avian Checklist.
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Heart-spotted woodpecker
- eBird: sightings, maps and photos
- xeno-canto: sound recordings
- Birds of the World: full species account (subscription)
- BirdLife DataZone: status and threats
- IUCN Red List (threat status)
- AviList global checklist (taxonomy)
Last updated September 29, 2026.
