Dendrocopos nanus (Vigors, 1832)

This sparrow-sized diminutive brown and white woodpecker has been seen in Hardwickia Grove (Aachathoppu) and in the inner path. With a brown crown and broad white eye stripe, its upperparts are barred dark brown and white. Below, the bird is brownish-white streaked with black. It is found in light deciduous and bamboo forests, secondary jungle, and groves of trees in and around cultivation; plains and foothills up to 1200m. This bird is usually seen in pairs and often with roving bands of small insectivorous birds such as nuthatches, tits, flycatchers and warblers. Its actions and behavior are very like a nuthatch. Preferring woody stems of shrubs close to the ground, it also can be seen in slender branches and bare topmost twigs of tall forest trees sunning itself early in the morning. Like a nuthatch, it creeps actively along and around a twig, tapping energetically with its bill and also hops or flits from one twig to another like a sparrow. Its flight is also sparrow-like, lacking the characteristic bounds and undulations of its larger relatives. Its diet includes insects like ants, bees, weevils, caterpillars, larvae etc., the pulp of fruits and berries of ficus and mahua as well as flower-nectar. It often has pollen adhering to its chin and forehead feathers showing its role in cross-pollination. Its call is an occasional feeble clickr-r-r and a soft but far-carrying drumming, usually while on a bare end-twig on the top of a tall tree. The breeding season is between February and July. The nest is a tiny hole under 3 cm in diameter drilled in a small, usually dead branch. There are 3 to 4 glossy white eggs and both parents are frilly involved in the entire breeding process.

A small pied woodpecker distributed widely across Indian subcontinent.  

 This species, along with P. temminckii, P. kizuki, P. maculatus, P. ramsayi, P. canicapillus and P. moluccensis, was previously placed in Dendrocopos, but molecular studies indicate that they all form a separate clade of very small species, evidently sister to the P. tridactylus clade; all seven have been combined in Yungipicus by some authors. Present species has until recently been treated as conspecific with P. moluccensis, but separated by recent authors on several characters..Sri Lankan form gymnopthalmos distinctive, both in plumage and in voice, and merits further study. Birds in E peninsular India described as race hardwickii, but considered to represent clinal variation.
Three subspecies recognized.
P. n. nanus (Vigors, 1832) – Indian Pygmy Woodpecker – N & peninsular India (except SW) and S Nepal E to Bihar.
P. n. cinereigula (Malherbe, 1849) – SW India in Kerala and W Tamil Nadu.
P. n. gymnopthalmos (Blyth, 1849) – Sri Lanka Pygmy Woodpecker – Sri Lanka.

 Season Feb–July, chiefly March and April, varying locally.

Nest-hole under 3 cm in diameter, drilled in a small dead branch between 2 and 12 meters up, in open forest; it leads down 5 to 10 cm to a somewhat widened unlined egg-chamber. In horizontal branches the entrance-hole is placed on the underside.

Eggs, 3 or 4, white, glossy, roundish ovals. Bothe sexes share in excavating the nest, incubation, and feeding the young. Incubation period underdetermined.

 Resident

  13 cm

 Call includes a rapid, tinny, weak, even-tempo trilling rattle with distinct notes, rising in pitch and volume, wavering somewhat and ending abruptly. Occasionally gives brief, rapid drumroll from high hollow branch. Tapping typically weak but rapid, rhythmic and persistent.

 
Usually keeps in pairs, frequently in association with the roving bands of small insectivores birds such as nuthatches, tits, flycatchers and warblers. Has been observed roosting at night in the crotch of a leafless upright twig in a small tree at an angle of 450.

 Chiefly insects and grubs. Also eats pulp of fruits and berries (Ficus figs, Buchanania latifolia drupes) and of mhowa flowers (Madhuca indca), and flower-nectar (Salmalia malabarica, Erythrina indica and Butea monosperma.)

 Partial to woody stems of shrubs close to the ground; also to slender outhanging branches and bare topmost twigs of tall forest trees. Common in more open deciduous forests, aprkland with scattered trees, as well as in groves of mango and other trees. 

 The population is belived to have increased locally owing to the opening up of forested areas

 Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Locally common to fairly common in much of Indian Subcontinent

 Woodpeckers (Picidae) family included under schedule IV under the Wildlife Protection Act. 1972