Red-stained woodpecker

The red-stained woodpecker (Veniliornis affinis) is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

The red-stained woodpecker is about 15 to 18 cm (5.9 to 7.1 in) long and weighs 32 to 44 g (1.1 to 1.6 oz). Males and females have the same plumage except on their heads. Males of the nominate subspecies affinis have a red crown with black feather bases that show through. The female has a dark olive-brown crown. Adults of both sexes have a mostly buffish face with olive streaks and a golden-yellow nape and hindneck. Their upperparts are mostly yellowish green with some red feather tips, pale yellow streaks, and some barring on the rump and uppertail coverts. Their flight feathers are dark brown with wide green edges and buffish white bars on the primaries and secondaries. Their tail is dark brown with yellowish bars on most feathers. Their underparts are light cinnamon-buff with dark olive-brown bars that are more widely spaced on the belly and flanks. The iris is brown to red-brown, the longish beak blackish with a paler mandible, and the legs are olive green to green-gray. Juveniles resemble adults with a darker and streakier face; both sexes have some red on the crown, the male more than the female.

Subspecies orenocensis has greener upperparts with less red than the nominate. Subspecies hilaris is larger than the nominate, with more bronzy or yellow upperparts with fainter streaks, and with broad red tips on the wing coverts. Subspecies ruficeps is the same size as hilaris, with larger red tips on the cover feathers and more obvious yellow streaks on the upperparts.