Piculus
Piculus is a genus of birds in the woodpecker family Picidae that are found in Central and South America.
| Piculus | |
|---|---|
| _male.jpg.webp) | |
| 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 | 
| Species | |
| See text | |
Taxonomy
    
The genus was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix in 1824.[1] The type species was subsequently designated as the golden-green woodpecker (Piculus chrysochloros) by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser in 1923.[2] The generic name is a diminutive of the Latin word Picus meaning "woodpecker".[3]
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.[4]
The genus contains seven species:[5]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution | 
|---|---|---|---|
| _male.jpg.webp) | Piculus simplex | Rufous-winged woodpecker | Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Formerly considered to be a subspecies of the white-throated woodpecker. | 
| _2.jpg.webp) | Piculus callopterus | Stripe-cheeked woodpecker | Panama. Formerly considered to be a subspecies of the white-throated woodpecker. | 
| Piculus litae | Lita woodpecker | western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador | |
| .jpg.webp) | Piculus leucolaemus | White-throated woodpecker | The Amazon Basin, Brazil, mainly in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia | 
| .jpg.webp) | 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.webp) | 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.
References
    
- von Spix, Johann Baptist (1824). Avium species novae, quas in itinere per Brasiliam annis MDCCCXVII-MDCCCXX (in Latin). Monachii [München]: Typis Franc. Seraph. Hübschmanni. Index p. 3. The link is to a scan of the 2nd edition published in 1838–1839.
- Oberholser, Harry C. (1923). "Chloronerpes Swainson versus Piculus Spix". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 36: 201–202.
- Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 306. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- Shakya, S.B.; Fuchs, J.; Pons, J.M.; Sheldon, F.H. (2017). "Tapping the woodpecker tree for evolutionary insight". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 116: 182–191. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2017.09.005. PMID 28890006.
- Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Woodpeckers". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
|  | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piculus. |