Japanese pygmy woodpecker (Dendrocopos kizuki)

Japanese: コゲラ（英語表記）Dendrocopos kizuki; Japanese pygmy woodpecker

A small woodpecker with a total length of about 15 cm. Its head, neck, and ear feathers are brown. The cheek line and the eye line that runs around the back of the head to the side of the neck are white. The wings and back have white horizontal stripes on a dark brown background. The chest and abdomen have gray-brown vertical stripes on a dull white background. Only the male has small red spots on both sides of the back of the head, but they are not noticeable in the wild, making it difficult to distinguish between males and females. It breeds in East Asia, including southeastern Russia and northeastern China, Sakhalin, Japan, and the Ussuri region. It makes a nest by digging a hole in a dead tree, which it also uses as a roost. It mainly eats insects on or inside the trunks and branches, but also eats plant seeds. It breeds in Japan from Hokkaido to the Ryukyu Islands, and the black and white contrast becomes clearer the further north you go, and the browner it becomes in the south. Previously, they lived in sparse forests on flatlands and low mountains, but they have expanded into forests and parks near cities, and began breeding in urban areas in the 1980s. Their population is relatively large, and they do not avoid people very much.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

キツツキ目キツツキ科。全長約 15cmの小型のキツツキ。頭上から後頸，目先から耳羽にかけては褐色。頬線と後頭をまわって側頸まで伸びる過眼線は白い。翼，背は暗褐色の地に白色の横縞模様がある。胸腹部はくすんだ白色地に，灰褐色の縦斑がある。雄のみ後頭部の左右両側に赤い小斑があるが，野外では目立たず，雌雄の区別は難しい。ロシア南東部，中国北東部など東アジア，サハリン，日本，ウスリー地方に繁殖分布する。巣は枯れ木に穴を掘ってつくり，ねぐらとしても使われる。食べ物はおもに幹や枝の表面や内部にいる昆虫だが，植物の種子も食べる。日本では北海道から南西諸島まで繁殖分布し，北方に行くほど黒白の対比が鮮明で，南方では褐色みが強くなる。以前は平地から低山の疎林にすんでいたが，都市近郊の林や公園にも進出し，1980年代には都市部でも繁殖するようになった。生息数も比較的多く，あまり人を避けない。

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