also: たくぼくちょう · けら · けらつつき
General term for woodpeckers (family Picidae). In everyday Japanese, the katakana form キツツキ is standard.
The sound of a woodpecker pecking at a tree echoed through the forest.
I heard the sound of a woodpecker pecking at a tree in the forest.
Woodpeckers drill holes in trees with their long beaks.
As a bird, 啄木鳥 is naturally counted with 羽, though 匹 (used for animals in general) is also possible.
northern flicker
acorn woodpecker
yellow-bellied sapsucker
olivaceous piculet
Katakana spelling is the most common practical written form; usually written in kana.
Archaic or dialectal name for woodpecker; may also refer to a mole cricket in modern Japanese. The reading is a gikun for 啄木鳥.
Literary or formal kanji spelling; rarely used in everyday writing. The reading きつつき is a jukujikun for this kanji form.
Alternate on'yomi reading of the same kanji form; very rare and mostly found in older or specialized texts.
Hiragana spelling is also used, especially in children's books or informal writing.
Compound reading combining けら and つつき; very rare and possibly historical or regional.
The word きつつき is of native Japanese origin, likely from the sound of pecking (擬声語). The kanji 啄木鳥 is a Chinese-derived compound meaning 'peck-wood-bird' and is read with the jukujikun きつつき. The reading たくぼくちょう is the on'yomi of the same characters. The forms けら and けらつつき are older or dialectal variants.