Buff-necked woodpecker

Buff-necked woodpecker
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Piciformes
Family: Picidae
Genus: Meiglyptes
Species:
M. tukki
Binomial name
Meiglyptes tukki
(Lesson, 1839)

The buff-necked woodpecker (Meiglyptes tukki) is a species of bird in the family Picidae.

History and Taxonomy

Meiglyptes tukki was first described by the French ornithologist René Primevère Lesson in 1839 as Picus tukki.[2]

It has four subspecies: Meiglyptes tukki tukki, Meiglyptes tukki percnerpes, Meiglyptes tukki batu, and Meiglyptes tukki pulonis.[3]

Morphology

Meiglyptes tukki is small and dark brown with pale wing barring and a dirty-cream stripe on the neck. It has a pointed bill which is curved along the culmen.[4] It is slightly heavier than its close relative Meiglyptes tristis and has a significantly longer tail.[4] M. tukki is distinguished from its closest relatives by the lack of a nuchal crest.[5]

A 1978 survey of fourteen individuals recorded mean body mass of 53g and a mean wing length of 101mm. The mean bill length, width, and depth noted in the 1978 survey were 22.68mm, 8.66mm, and 7.98mm, respectively.[4]

Distribution

M. tukki is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand. It inhabits primary evergreen and semi-evergreen lowland forests and peat swamp forests.[6]

Behavior

M. tukki primarily forages by surface gleaning and probing on branches and sapling trunks. It primarily feeds on ants and termites.[4] A 2004 observational study noted that M. tukki primarily forages in the midstory, occupying a distinct niche from the sympatric M. tristis.[4] It favors small perches and frequently feeding on arboreal ant nests,[7] Pairs often forage within a short distance of one another. Individuals have been observed foraging in interspecies flocks.[3][4]

Meiglyptes tukki nests in rotted stumps.[4]

Relationship with humans

M. tukki is presumed to be threatened by habitat loss, particularly in the Greater Sundaic bioregion due to timber harvesting and the proliferation of palm-oil and rubber plantations.[6] The resilience of M. tukki to habitat disturbance is unknown. A survey conducted in Malaysia in 2009 observed the species feeding in a palm-oil plantation[8] however other surveys have documented the species' absence in disturbed areas; surveys conducted in North Sumatra (2010-2011) and Indonesia (2017) found that the M. tukki was absent from a sago plantation and a rubber tree plantation respectively, though present in adjacent regions of conserved forest.[9][10]

In his 1976 work Birds and deities in Borneo, the anthropologist Peter Metcalf noted that one subspecies of the buff-necked woodpecker, M. tukki tukki, was considered an augur animal among some populations of the Kenyah people. In the Long Terawan dialect of Berawan it was known as a sirεk, a name it shared with the grey-capped pygmy woodpecker and the hair-crested drongo. According to one native informant to see a sirεk to one's right was thought to be a good omen, while seeing one on one's left or cutting across one's path was a bad omen indicating that one should turn back. Another informant described the sirεk as having a "bad voice" which foretold thunder or an encounter with a dangerous animal.[11]

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2016). "Meiglyptes tukki". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016 e.T22681562A95210405. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22681562A95210405.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ↑ Cuvierienne, Société de (1839). "Liste d'oiseaux nouveaux de la collection du docteur Abeillé de Bordeaux, par R. P. Lesson". Revue zoologique. 1839: 167. ISSN 1259-6493. Archived from the original on 2026-05-17.
  3. 1 2 Winkler, Hans; Christie, David (2020). "Buff-necked Woodpecker (Meiglyptes tukki), version 1.0". Birds of the World. doi:10.2173/bow.bunwoo1.01. ISSN 2771-3105.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Short, Lester L. (1978). "Sympatry in Woodpeckers of Lowland Malayan Forest". Biotropica. 10 (2): 122–133. doi:10.2307/2388015. ISSN 0006-3606.
  5. ↑ "Buff-necked Woodpecker - eBird". ebird.org. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  6. 1 2 "Buff-necked Woodpecker Meiglyptes tukki Species Factsheet". BirdLife DataZone. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  7. ↑ Styring, Alison R.; Hussin, Mohamed Zakaria bin (September 2004). "Foraging ecology of woodpeckers in lowland Malaysian rain forests". Journal of Tropical Ecology. 20 (5): 487–494. doi:10.1017/S0266467404001579. ISSN 0266-4674.
  8. ↑ Azman, Nur Munira; Latip, Nurul Salmi Abdul; Sah, Shahrul Anuar Mohd; Akil, Mohd Abdul Muin Md; Shafie, Nur Juliani; Khairuddin, Nurul Liyana (December 2011). "Avian diversity and feeding guilds in a secondary forest, an oil palm plantation and a paddy field in riparian areas of the kerian river basin, perak, malaysia". Tropical Life Sciences Research. 22 (2): 45–64. ISSN 1985-3718. PMC 3819081. PMID 24575217.
  9. ↑ Santosa, Y; Karuniyanti, D E D (2018-11-19). "Wildlife biodiversity in plantation-working area and conservation area of PT National Sago Prima Industrial Forest in Meranti Island District, Riau Province, Indonesia". IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 196 012023. doi:10.1088/1755-1315/196/1/012023. ISSN 1755-1315.
  10. ↑ Ayat, Asep; Tata, Hesti L. (2015-10-31). "DIVERSITY OF BIRDS ACROSS LAND USE AND HABITAT GRADIENTS IN FORESTS, RUBBER AGROFORESTS AND RUBBER PLANTATIONS OF NORTH SUMATRA". Indonesian Journal of Forestry Research. 2 (2): 103–120. doi:10.59465/ijfr.2015.2.2.103-120. ISSN 2406-8195.
  11. ↑ Metcalf, Peter (1976). "Birds and Deities in Borneo". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 132 (1): 96–123. ISSN 0006-2294.
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