African grey woodpecker
The African grey woodpecker is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae. Is a widespread and frequently common resident breeder in much of Sub-Saharan and equatorial Africa. It is a species associated with forest and bush which nests in a tree hole, often in an oil palm, laying two to four eggs. It is a common bird with a very wide range, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".
Taxonomy
The African grey woodpecker was described by the German zoologist Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller in 1776 from a specimen collected in Senegal. He coined the binomial name Picus goertae. The specific epithet is from the French polymath Comte de Buffon who noted that "Goërtan" was the name used for the species in Senegal. The species was also illustrated in a set of plates that accompanied Brisson's work. The African grey woodpecker is now placed in the genus Dendropicos that was introduced by the French ornithologist Alfred Malherbe in 1849.Five subspecies are recognised:D. g. koenigi – Mali to west SudanD. g. abessinicus – east Sudan to west EthiopiaD. g. goertae – Senegal and Gambia to Mali.D. g. centralis – Sierra Leone to Nigeria, south Sudan, west Kenya and northwest TanzaniaD. g. meridionalis Louette & Prigogine, 1982 – south Gabon and northwest Angola to south central Democratic Republic of the Congo
The African grey woodpecker and the eastern grey woodpecker were formerly treated as conspecific.