White Woodpecker - Melanerpes candidus

The White Woodpecker is a striking and unmistakable species found across central South America, including Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and northern Argentina. With its bold black-and-white plumage and distinctive yellow bare skin around the eye — often described as “yellow goggles” — it stands out clearly in the field.

Unlike many woodpeckers that spend most of their time chiselling into tree trunks for insects, the White Woodpecker is quite opportunistic and will feed on a wide range of foods, including fruit, insects and even the contents of other birds’ nests.

In this video, the woodpecker appears to be attacking a nest belonging to a Great Kiskadee. The loud screeching calls you can hear are coming from the young woodpeckers who were also there. Nest predation like this can be dramatic to witness, but it is a natural part of the complex relationships between birds in the wild.

This scene was filmed in Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo, Brazil.