ONE does not expect to hear the distinctive noise of a woodpecker drumming, very loudly if the tree happens to be dried out, echoing across sparsely treed desert regions of the country. But as unlikely as it sounds, there is a species which does inhabit such locations.

The Sindh pied woodpecker or dendrocopos assimilis to give it its ornithological name, is a medium-sized woodpecker that is native to Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and south-eastern Iran. And while it does enjoy being in wooded areas along the Indus River Valley, it is equally at home in dry, sub-tropical areas where there are at least a few thorn trees.

They like being on members of the ‘acacia’ family of plants, to hunt for their favourite food — creepy crawlies like beetles — and hide underneath the tree bark through which the birds must ‘drum’ a hole’ to get them out.

With an average body length of 22cm, a wing length of 11.5cm, a tail measuring around seven cm and a bill or beak of 2.5cm, the Sindh pied woodpecker is easier to spot than some of its smaller cousins and, seeing it is made far easier in that, unlike woodpecker species that are well camouflaged. The male stands out a mile as it wears a very distinctive bright red cap although the rest of its body is pied in black and white. The female is exactly the same as the male, but without the red cap.

Not exactly common — but not rare either — this woodpecker is more numerous in northern rather than southern Sindh and also inhabits the countryside around Lasbela, Kalat, the Salt Range and Kala Chitta hills in the Punjab and lots of other places, especially where there are a few trees, in between.

In common with other woodpeckers, it hollows out a nest in a tree trunk or thick branch and lays three to four, small, white eggs sometime around the beginning of April with the chicks hatching out 15 or 16 days later.

The chicks are completely naked and blind when they hatch and, as with all woodpecker chicks, they are extremely noisy when feeling hungry, poking their tiny heads out of the nest hole in the hope of being the first one to be fed when the female returns with fresh food to stuff into their wide open beaks. The male is much lazier when it comes to attending his chicks.

Some kinds of woodpeckers also feed on the ground as well as on trees but, so far at least, the Sindh pied woodpeckers has only been observed feeding on trees themselves. If beetles are in short supply then it merrily gobbles up ants and any larvae it finds in or on the tree bark and branches.

This woodpecker has a habit of seemingly running up and down tree trunks and branches, going around and around them as it moves up and down, and all in all, is a very fascinating bird indeed.