Green-barred woodpecker

The green-barred woodpecker or green-barred flicker (Colaptes melanochloros) is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The green-barred woodpecker is 27 to 30 cm (11 to 12 in) long and weighs 80 to 178 g (2.8 to 6.3 oz). Males and females have the same plumage except on their heads. Adult males of the nominate subspecies C. m. melanochloros have a black forehead and forecrown and a red hindcrown and nape. They are white from their lores around the eye to the nape with a red malar stripe below it; their ear coverts have a strong olive tinge. Their chin and throat are whitish green with black streaks. Adult females have red only on the hindcrown and nape; their malar is black with white streaks. Both sexes have yellowish green upperparts with dark brown bars; their rump is paler and less heavily barred and their uppertail coverts are buff with black bars. Their flight feathers are greenish brown with pale barring and olive shafts. The top side of their tail is black and the outer feathers have pale bars. The tail's underside is black with yellowish bars. Their underparts are pale green that is usually darker on the breast with black spots there and on the lower breast and flanks, but usually not on the belly. Their longish bill is black, their iris brown to chestnut-brown, and the legs gray usually with a greenish or yellow tinge.

Subspecies C. m. nattereri is similar to the nominate but smaller and shorter-billed; its plumage is more yellow and the underparts' spots are very small or streaky. The two subspecies are not fully distinct; their plumages intergrade widely. C. m. melanolaimus is more greenish above than the nominate and its rump has less spotting and its tail less barring. It has black markings on the side of the throat and its breast has a golden tinge. C. m. nigroviridis is similar to melanolaimus but still more greenish above; its tail is more strongly barred, its breast less golden, and the underparts' spots are larger. C. m. leucofrenatus is the largest subspecies and the most distinctive. It is brown to golden brown above with whitish barring and a white rump; its breast is golden to orange, its flanks strongly barred, and has large spots or arrowhead-shaped spots on the underparts. These last three also intergrade but less widely than the two "green-barred" subspecies.

The call is a "kwiek-kwik-kwik". Green-barred woodpeckers also make a variety of other notes, singly or in series, "peah, krrew, and peek, and "a screechy wheéo, krrew, pikwarrr, or ker wick." Both sexes drum in "short rolls" but not frequently.