AVIS-IBIS

Birds of Indian Subcontinent

1381. Yungipicus nanus brunneiceps

(1388) Yungipicus nanus brunneiceps Stuart Baker.
THE NORTHERN INDIAN PIGMY WOODPECKER.
Yungipicus hardwickii brunneiceps, Fauna B. I., Birds, 2nd ed. vol. iv. p. 53.
Yungipicus nanus brunneiceps, ibid. vol. viii, p. 672.
This Pigmy Woodpecker occurs over the whole of Northern India north of a lino drawn roughly from Khandesh in the West, through Bellary in the centre, to the Nallamalai Hills in Madras. It is found in the foot-hills of the Kuman and Sikkim Terai, extending into Bihar and West and Northern Bengal.
This is an extremely common species in Bihar, in which province Inglis, Coltart, Harvey and others have taken or seen many nests. The nest-holes are nearly all made in branches of Mango-trees standing in the Mango-groves so numerous in the vicinity of almost every village in Bihar and Bengal. The neats may be almost any height from the ground between 5 and 45 feet, but the great majority are between 8 and 20. They are not easy to find, though the entrance is always on the underside of the branch but, once the birds are seen, they are easy to mark on to the nest as they are very tame confiding little birds. The entrance is tiny, sometimes a bare inch, and never so much as 14. The tunnel sometimes runs for as far as 8 inches to a foot before widening into a chamber about 4 inches in diameter. Coltart obtained many nests from the back of a horse which he had trained to stand still as he stood in the saddle and cut out the entrance.
Cock found nests at Seetapur in Mangos, as did Reed and Jesse also at Lucknow. Other nests have been taken in “Keekur trees (A. E. Jones) and Babool (Jesse).
As a rule the nest is cut in wood which is sound or only slightly decayed but, occasionally, it is drilled in quite rotten branches.
The breeding season is February, March and early April, and very few eggs are laid earlier or later.
The normal full clutch is three, sometimes only two, while I have seen none of four.
Twenty eggs average 17.9 x 13.7 mm, : maxima 19.2 x 14.0 and 18.5 x 14.1 mm. ; minima 17.0 x 13.4 and 18.0 x 13.2 mm.
In texture and gloss they are typical Woodpeckers’ eggs, but in shape they are short, blunt ovals, as are all Yungipicus eggs.
Cock gives the following good advice :—“With rare Woodpeckers the egg-collector should always lift up the young, as an addled egg is often found with them in the nest.”

BookTitle: 
The Nidification Of Birds Of The Indian Empire
Reference: 
Baker, Edward Charles Stuart. The nidification of birds of the Indian Empire. Vol. 3. 1934.
Title in Book: 
1381. Yungipicus nanus brunneiceps
Spp Author: 
Stuart baker.
Book Author: 
Edward Charles Stuart Baker
CatNo: 
1381
Year: 
1934
Page No: 
295
Common name: 
Northern Indian Pigmy Woodpecker
M_ID: 
10596
M_CN: 
Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
M_SN: 
Dendrocopos nanus
Volume: 
Vol. 3
Term name: 
id: 
14488

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Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith