📸 PhotoPhoto: Ubailves · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
White-backed Woodpecker
Dendrocopos leucotos (White-backed Woodpecker · オオアカゲラ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its body length of 28 cm is slightly shorter than the long side of an A4 sheet of paper (29.7 cm), and its mass of 112 g is close to two chicken eggs (about 60 g each) (Comparison).
- 💡 Because it lives in old, healthy broadleaf forests with many standing dead and fallen trees, it serves as an indicator of well-preserved woodland.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The white-backed woodpecker is the largest of the black-and-white spotted woodpeckers and is an uncommon resident bird found across Korea.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Males have a red crown and back of the head with a thin black line running along the side of the head. The belly is white with broad black streaks, the back and wings are barred black and white, and females have a black rather than red crown.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It mainly eats beetles and their larvae inside dead or decaying wood. Excavating its own nest hole in a tree trunk, it lays 3–5 eggs starting in late April (month 4) and breeds with the same mate year after year.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
It is listed on the National List of Species of Korea as an uncommon resident bird seen across the country.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2020) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22727124/181844246
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • doi.org — avilist.v2026
- • iucnredlist.org — 181844246
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000001910 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000001910
- • wikidata.org — Q207290
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Dendrocopos leucotos.jpg
- • species.nibr.go.kr — mainHome.do
- • animaldiversity.org — Dendrocopos leucotos
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Steven Traver · CC0 1.0 (Congeneric silhouette — Dendrocopos major)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.