Scientific name: Geocolaptes olivaceus
The ground woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in the region, reaching 30 cm in length. The upper parts are greyish-brown with pale spotting, and the rump is red, more visible in flight. The upper sides of wings and tail are brown barred with white. The underparts are buff, flushed with pink or red. The underside of the tail is pale brown, barred with paler colour. The beak is black, long and slender, the irises pink or yellow, and the legs grey.
The ground woodpecker (Geocolaptes olivaceus) is one of only three ground-dwelling woodpeckers in the world (the others are the Andean and Campo flickers). It inhabits rather barren, steep, boulder-strewn slopes in relatively cool hilly and mountainous areas of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland and has yet to be recorded outside of Southern Africa.
It is highly specialized, as ants form approximately 99% of its diet, digging up subsurface ant nests and licking them up with its sticky tongue. It eats so many ants that it can decrease the ant population in its area by as much as 25-50%
