A Chic Palette: Pale, Cream and White Woodpeckers

Woodpeckers worldwide just ooze character, and the Pantanal has a range of species. I already showed you a Campo Flicker. But how about this Cream-backed Woodpecker, Campephilus leucopogon, a dead ringer for Woody the Woodpecker of cartoon fame:

It refused to come out of its nesthole, but in the second photo you can admire its crest, and just glimpse its white back:

Much more discreetly colored is the Pale-crested Woodpecker, Celeus lugubris, feeding deep in the trees:

She is a female; the male has a red cheek patch.

And conveniently out in the open, the boringly named White Woodpecker, Melanerpes candidus, gives us a beady eye:

It takes me happy to tell you that none of these is thought to be endangered.

PS I mistyped ‘happy’ in the last sentence, and my spellchecker serendipitously autocorrected so it read “It makes me hoopoe to tell you”, which seemed appropriate.

PPS This is my last post from the Pantanal. It’s not that there is not even more to show you, but it feels like time to move on, at least for now!