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

Piculus is a genus of birds in the woodpecker family Picidae that are found in Central and South America.

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.
	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
	Piculus leucolaemus	White-throated woodpecker	The Amazon Basin, Brazil, mainly in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia
	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
	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

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