Woodpeckers of the World: Literature: The Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Monday 16 January 2012

Literature: The Red-cockaded Woodpecker

This full title of this important book by Richard N. Conner, D. Craig Rudolph and Jeffrey R. Walters is The Red-cockaded Woodpecker: Surviving in a Fire-maintained Ecosystem. The authors document the story of this endangered picid, covering just about every angle there is in great detail, from history, evolution, behaviour, ecology, forestry, conservation and the associated politics. All in all, essential reading. Published by University of Texas Press, Austin, USA, in 2001.

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Background

Woodpeckers, the Picidae, are Piciformes, an order that includes some of the oldest avian lineages. The Piciformes probably originated about 60 million years ago in the Tertiary period and became distinct from their closest relatives some 50 million years ago. Depending upon which taxonomy is followed, and the fact that the status of some species is unclear, around 240-260 woodpecker species probably exist globally. The Picidae includes three subfamilies: Jynginae (wrynecks), Picumninae (piculets) and the Picinae, the “true woodpeckers”. In terms of size, behaviour, distribution and the habitats they use, the Picinae are a fairly diverse group of birds with six distinct tribes. They are widespread and found from sea-level to high-altitudes but absent from the Arctic, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar and some other islands. Worldwide woodpeckers are usually, but not exclusively, associated with trees.