Piculus
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Piculus is a genus of birds in the woodpecker family Picidae that are found in Central and South America.
_male.jpg)
| Piculus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Adult male rufous-winged woodpecker (Piculus simplex) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Piciformes |
| Family: | Picidae |
| Tribe: | Picini |
| Genus: | Piculus Spix, 1824 |
| Type species | |
| Piculus macrocephalus[1] von Spix, 1824 | |
| Species | |
|
See text | |
Taxonomy
The genus was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix in 1824.[2] The type species was subsequently designated as the golden-green woodpecker (Piculus chrysochloros) by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser in 1923.[3] The generic name is a diminutive of the Latin word Picus meaning "woodpecker".[4]
The genus forms part of the woodpecker subfamily Picinae and has a sister relationship to the genus Dryocopus whose species are found in Eurasia and the Americas. The genus Piculus is a member of the tribe Picini and belongs to a clade that contains five genera: Colaptes, Piculus, Mulleripicus, Dryocopus and Celeus.[5]
The genus contains seven species:[6]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Piculus simplex | Rufous-winged woodpecker | Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Formerly considered to be a subspecies of the white-throated woodpecker. |
_2.jpg) | Piculus callopterus | Stripe-cheeked woodpecker | Panama. Formerly considered to be a subspecies of the white-throated woodpecker. |
.jpg) | Piculus litae | Lita woodpecker | western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador |
.jpg) | Piculus leucolaemus | White-throated woodpecker | The Amazon Basin, Brazil, mainly in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia |
.jpg) | Piculus flavigula | Yellow-throated woodpecker | Brazil and the entire Amazon Basin; also in the Guianas, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela |
_(8079739212).jpg) | Piculus chrysochloros | Golden-green woodpecker | The Amazon Basin in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru and Suriname |
 | Piculus aurulentus | Yellow-browed woodpecker | Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. |
Five other species, formerly placed here, are now in Colaptes.
