Dwarf woodpeckers

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Dwarf woodpeckers
Banded dwarf woodpecker (Picumnus temminckii)

Banded dwarf woodpecker ( Picumnus temminckii )

Systematics
Sub-stem : Vertebrates (vertebrata)
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Woodpecker birds (Piciformes)
Family : Woodpeckers (Picidae)
Subfamily : Dwarf woodpeckers
Scientific name
Picumninae
GR Gray , 1840

The miniature woodpeckers (Picumninae) - also known as soft-tailed woodpeckers - are a subfamily of the woodpecker family (order of the woodpecker birds ). In contrast to the real woodpeckers , the dwarf woodpeckers do not have a support tail because their tail feathers are not stiff enough. Since their beak is not that stable, they do not build their own breeding holes themselves, but use abandoned woodpecker holes. They are characterized by a relatively large head and a long tongue. They move similarly to the nuthatches and feed mainly on insects that they find under dead tree bark. A special feature is the zygodactyle arrangement of the toes - with two toes pointing forward and two pointing backwards. The representatives of the dwarf woodpeckers have sizes of approx. 10 cm and are therefore much smaller than their relatives of the real woodpeckers. Their habitat are tropical forests. The species of the genus Picumnus are common in South and Central America. The genus Sasia includes one African and two Asian species. A separate subfamily has now been proposed for the genus of the hopping woodpecker (Nesoctites), which occurs in the Caribbean (Benz et al. , 2006).

Systematics

The subfamily of the dwarf woodpeckers contains the following genera:

literature

  • Brett W. Benz, Mark B. Robbins & A. Townsend Peterson: Evolutionary history of woodpeckers and allies (Aves: Picidae): Placing key taxa on the phylogenetic tree. In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 40 (2006): 389-399, doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2006.02.021 (HTML abstract).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ to: Picumninae in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).