White-barred Piculet

10 cm. Male"s forehead and crown are black with broad red feather tips forming a red patch. Nape and hindneck black spotted white. Cheeks and ear coverts buff, barred black. White stripe behind the eye. Side of neck, throat, and moustachial area whitish, barred black. Upperparts brownish-olive with faint barring. Upper wing coverts, primaries and secondaries brown, the secondaries and tertials edged whitish. Upper tail dark brown, the central tail feathers with a white stripe along inner web, the outer two or three tail feathers with diagonal white stripes. Underside white, barred black. <NThe female lacks red on the head. A high descending "tsirrrr". Forages singly or in pairs in undergrowth of scrub and open forest. Hammers at twigs and buds, behavior similar to a nuthatch or a chickadee. Nest is excavated by both sexes. September-March. Common in tall brush, gallery forest, savannah, transitional forest, open woodland, low scrub. Throughout. Up to 2100 meters /Picumnus albosquamatus , tiny, brown, with wedge-shaped marks below is found inland in northern Estado S<C4>o Paulo in savannah country ^128 . /Picumnus nebulosus , tiny, brownish above with rusty brown breast and flanks heavily marked black, is found from Parana southward. 5175 Calls, P. Isler, LNS47988.: 3864 >: 6648 , Photo by Fritz Mueller, New York :