At around 30 cm long, the Flamebacks are among the largest woodpeckers. The female of the species sports a spotted black and white fore-crown and a red patch on the rear crest while the male is easily identified by its large red crown and crest.

A Flameback!

The Flamebacks are easily identifiable by their perch, which is crouched and low, with a constant pecking motion on tree trunks. They possibly have the longest tongues in their class of birds which comes in handy while licking up bugs and insects from the holes drilled by their constant pecking.

Woodpeckers are Zygodactyls due to the unique shape of their feet, which have toes facing forward and backwards, that help them get a firm grip even on flat tree trunks, as they climb almost every perch vertically.

A White-bellied Woodpecker

The flight patterns of Woodpeckers are unique as well. A few rapid beats of the wing help them gain height, and a quick wing tuck against the body enables it to gain speed by losing altitude during a short glide, followed again by rapid beating of the wings to take off once more. It is a kind of climb, dip, climb pattern, very unique to bird flight.

The Flamebacks and the White-bellied Woodpeckers are the most common Woodpecker species spotted at Kabini, while the Pygmy Woodpecker does make a rare appearance.

Rajan Kanagasabai

An ardent Environmentalist and an avid wildlife Photographer, Rajan is a prominent member of leading Environmental, Wildlife and Photography organizations. His works have been featured on several travel magazines. A frequent visitor to Orange County, Kabini and Coorg, Rajan specializes in Wildlife and Bird Photography. Possessing over 23 years of experience working in the IT Industry, Rajan holds a senior management position at one of India's top IT companies. Rajan has reviewed a number of global resorts for several leading travel journals and blogs and is also a Destination Expert for the renowned Trip Advisor travel forum.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 25th, 2011 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Birds, Destinations, Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.