Great spotted woodpecker

A bird of the woodpecker family, order Pici, class Aves. It is a medium-sized species with a total length of about 25 cm. It is a typical northern woodpecker, widely distributed from East Asia (as far south as northern Vietnam) through Siberia to Europe, and in Japan it lives in the forests of Honshu and Hokkaido. Its plumage is mottled black and white, with a white underside and a red underbelly. It lives in broadleaf and coniferous forests, as well as in plantations of cedar and cypress. The genus Great Spotted Woodpecker, which includes this species, is a group of woodpeckers with a uniform plumage with black and white mottled backs, and a total length of 13 to 30 cm. There are about 35 species distributed widely throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America, making it the most numerous group of woodpeckers. Of these, about 20 species are found in the temperate and cold zones of the Northern Hemisphere, making it a northern group among woodpeckers that mainly live in the tropics. In addition to the great spotted woodpecker, there are two other species in the genus D. great spotted woodpecker and D. little spotted woodpecker, which are widely distributed from Europe through Siberia to Japan, and these three species form the core of the group. The other species that inhabits Japan is the Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker. Two species, the Downy Spotted Woodpecker D. villosus and the Downy Pygmy Woodpecker D. pubescens , are widely distributed in North America. In addition, there are about eight species in temperate Asia, about eight species in tropical Asia, one species each in Europe, Arabia, and Africa, and about eight species from southern North America to South America. Two closely related species in the genus Pygmy Woodpecker have plumage similar to that of the great spotted woodpecker and live in boreal coniferous forests, so they are included in the boreal woodpeckers.

[Masaaki Uramoto]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

鳥綱キツツキ目キツツキ科の鳥。中形種で全長約25センチメートル。北方性の典型的なキツツキで、東アジア（南はベトナム北部まで）からシベリアを経てヨーロッパまでに広く分布し、日本では本州と北海道の森林に生息する。羽色は白黒のまだらで、腹面は白く下腹部は赤い。広葉樹林にも針葉樹林にも、またスギやヒノキの植林地にも生息する。本種の含まれるアカゲラ属は背面が白黒のまだらをしたじみな羽色のキツツキで、全長13～30センチメートル。ヨーロッパ、アジア、アフリカ、南北アメリカに約35種が広く分布し、キツツキ類中の最多グループである。そのうち約20種は北半球の温帯と寒帯に分布し、熱帯を中心とするキツツキ類のなかでは北方系のグループといえる。アカゲラ属のなかでアカゲラのほかにオオアカゲラ、コアカゲラの2種がヨーロッパからシベリアを経て日本まで広く分布しており、この3種がグループの中心をなす。日本にはほかにコゲラが生息している。北アメリカにはセジロアカゲラD. villosusとセジロコゲラD. pubescensの2種が広く分布する。このほか、温帯アジアに約8種、熱帯アジアに約8種、ヨーロッパ、アラビア、アフリカに各1種、北アメリカ南部から南アメリカに約8種がある。近縁のミユビゲラ属2種はアカゲラ属と同じような羽色で寒帯の針葉樹林にすむため、北方性キツツキに含められる。

［浦本昌紀］

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