Appearance:

Dark blue metallic upperparts, deep red forehead and throat and light underparts. Long tail-streamers in adults and deeply forked tail. Both the metallic blue and the deep red appears black at a distance. Combination of dark throat/breast and light underparts and vent is diagnostic, and distinguishes it both from Red-rumped Swallow and the smaller martins. Juveniles are less brightly coloured with a dull red throat, and short streamers.

Sound:

Characteristic calls and song. Contact call a short and sharp "weet" or "kee-weet". Song a sparkling, squeaky energetic improvisation with interspersed contact calls, often with diagnostic ending; an electric and drawn-out "su-eerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr".

Song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Appearance:

Shows no red patches in any plumages. Only woodpecker in WP with barred flanks. White stripes extends from behind eye to back and from base of bill to scapulars, but head is generally much darker than in other pied woodpeckers. Crown in male yellow, in female speckled white.

Sound:

Drumming powerful and slow, with each beat clearly distinguishable. Most similar to Black Woodpecker but not as long (1 - 1.4 seconds). Accelerated ending (just the last few beats). Contact call similar to Great Spotted, but deeper and softer. Not very vocal.

Drumming:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sounds:Antero Lindholm, www.xeno-canto.org/247630.