(Reprinted with permission of the author. The full article has been shortened. Contact the author for the full text.)
Painting and text by Barry Kent MacKay
This is quite an old painting, really a study, of a Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos), which has a very large range from southern Panama south through pretty well all of Amazonia, east of the Andes and north of the pampas all the way to the northern and northeastern coasts of South America, although absent from the south-eastern regions of Brazil.
These birds are fairly common and resilient, being able to live in second growth forest and tree plantations. They have a typical woodpecker diet mostly consisting of insects found in trees and branches by pecking away at the bark, but supplemented by small berries and other fruit. I have shown a male.
Both sexes carve out the nest cavity, and tend to the young, but for such a common, colorful, and widespread species relatively little is known about their breeding habits. This painting is about 20 by 15 inches, in acrylics, on illustration board.
Barry Kent MacKay, Bird Artist, Illustrator, fineartamerica.com/profiles/barry-mackay
Studio: (905) 472 9731 or email: mimus@sympatico.ca
Barry Kent MacKay
Bird Artist, Illustrator
Studio: (905) 472 9731
mimus@sympatico.ca