Photo left copyright Karoline Mena (karomc80@yahoo.com)

Endemic to Puerto Rico and Vieques (and formerly recorded on the Virgin Islands) the rather lovely Puerto Rican Woodpecker Melanerpes portoricensis (Carpintero de Puerto Rico in Spanish) is one of four endemic species of the Melanerpes genus that occur in the Greater Antilles (the others being the Hispaniolan M. striatus, Jamaican M. radiolatus, and West Indian Woodpeckers M. superciliaris).

There are twenty-two species of Melanerpes woodpecker in total, all occurring from the Amazon northwards into Central America and the Caribbean, Mexico, and North America. North American birders - especially those in the west - will probably see an immediate resemblance with the Puerto Rican Wodpecker to more familiar species like the related Lewis’s M. lewis and Acorn M. formicivorus Woodpeckers, and, according to Mark Oberle (quoting from his excellent ‘Puerto Rico’s Birds in Photographs’) like those species “small groups will chatter in dead or sparsely-leafed trees…[and] calls include a loud series of ‘wicka‘ notes”.

While birders are unlikely to find a Puerto Rican Woodpecker in California anytime soon, they are very likely to see one if they get out to Puerto Rico. This is a common and widely distributed resident, occurring in lower mountain forest foothills, coastal mangrove swamps, palm tree groves, parks and gardens and most birding groups will come across it several times on even a short stay. (It’s also the only woodpecker that visitors to Puerto Rico are at all likely to see: both Yellow-naped Sapsucker and Hairy Woodpecker have been recorded but both are accidental.)

It’s recorded in most of the island’s Important Bird Areas (IBAs), and a typical (and popular site) to see them is around the parking lot at the El Portal Rain Forest Center in El Yunque Forest, on the El Portal Trail, and in the area surrounding the Yokahu Tower Interpretive Site.

IBAs where the Puerto Rican Woodpecker has been recorded

Being the only woodpecker nesting on the island it is also the only species that creates tree nest cavities (it does sometimes excavate cavities in utility poles too like its North American cousins), and these are used by other endemic birds such as the Puerto Rican Flycatcher Myiarchus antillarum and - more importantly - by the Endangered Yellow-shouldered Blackbird Agelaius xanthomus, a species in sharp decline because of the spread of Shiny Cowbirds.

Puerto Rican Woodpecker/Carpintero de Puerto Rico Melanerpes portoricensis.
Photo © Kevin Loughlin WildSide Nature Tours.

Puerto Rican Woodpecker/Carpintero de Puerto Rico Melanerpes portoricensis.
Photo © Alberto Lopez-Torres (see more of Alberto’s photos at puertoricanwildlifephotography.blogspot.com and www.flickr.com)

• Like to see what else we’ve posted for ‘Puerto Rico Month’? Just click http://10000birds.com/tag/puerto-rico-month

 

• If you live in Puerto Rico or have visited PR and would like to contribute photos or a guest post (return traffic to your blog/website should be good, folks) then please mail charlie10000birds AT gmail DOT com

How would you and a partner/friend like to win a 5 day ‘Endemic Dash’ around Puerto Rico with Kevin Loughlin’s WildSide Nature Tours?

You would? Read on…

Kevin (whose photographs of Puerto Rican Woodpecker and Green-throated Carib grace this post) has been organising trips to the Caribbean for many years and is generously offering two places on an Endemic Dash, one of his popular short trips around Puerto Rico on which participants will be taken to see as many of the island’s endemics as possible.

The Tour starts in San Juan - so you’ll need to get there (flights are frequent and cheap from many major US cities) - but all guiding fees, accommodations, ground transportation, and meals from dinner on day of arrival through breakfast on day of departure are included!

That would normally cost two people around 2500USD - enter and win and it’ll cost you just your passport fees, airport taxes, alcoholic beverages, laundry, phone calls or anything else of a purely personal nature! Which - if you go easy on the celebratory beers, wear the same socks for a few days, and keep short the gloating phone calls to your jealous mates back home - really won’t amount to very much at all…

We’ll be posting more info about this fantastic competition during Puerto Rico Month - yes, okay, not posting the questions now is our way of making sure you come back to visit us, but why would you want to miss some truly exceptional photographs of Puerto Rico’s endemics and some of the most up-to-date info on Puerto Rico’s biodiversity on the net anyway?