Crimson-backed flameback

Not to be confused with Red-backed flameback.

The crimson-backed flameback or greater Sri Lanka flameback (Chrysocolaptes stricklandi) is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae that is endemic to Sri Lanka.

Crimson-backed flameback
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Picidae
Genus:	Chrysocolaptes
Species:	C. stricklandi
Binomial name
Chrysocolaptes stricklandi (Layard, 1854) [2]
Synonyms
Brachypternus stricklandi

The crimson-backed flameback and the greater flameback (Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus) were both formerly considered as subspecies of the buff-spotted flameback (Chrysocolaptes lucidus).^[3][4]

Nigel Collar (2011, p. 33) notes the differences between Chrysocolaptes stricklandi and Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus as being that the former has a crimson rather than golden upper body plumage, a yellow rather than a black beak, a weaker supramoustachial stripe and a less noticeable, even spotty, eyebrow stripe.^[5]

Notes

It takes its binomial name (formerly Brachypternus stricklandi) from Hugh Edwin Strickland (see Layard 1854 p. 29).