Stripe-breasted Woodpecker

The stripe-breasted woodpecker is 21–22 cm long. The upperparts are black heavily barred with white, with the mantle unbarred, and the upper tail is black with some white on the outer feathers. The crown and nape are red in the male and black in the female. The face is whitish with a black moustache that joins a stripe on the edge of the breast, and the undertail coverts are red. Juveniles have greyer underparts and duller crowns (Wikipedia, general species account).

Its range extends from north-eastern India to Vietnam and Yunnan, at about 800–2,800 m though mostly above 2,000 m. It feeds in the mid to upper canopy on insects, particularly ants and beetle larvae, often in pairs or small family groups, and excavates its nest in a rotten stump or tree well above the ground. Breeding is from March to May in India, with typically four or five eggs, and on one occasion a male and a female were seen incubating at the same time. The species is not in SoIB 2023 as a separate category but is listed as a resident forest bird (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).