Woodpeckers of the World: Terrestrial Woodpeckers

Friday, 9 January 2015

Terrestrial Woodpeckers

There are several woodpecker species around the world that tend to forage on the ground and many others that, though essentially arboreal, will also occasionally drop to the ground to feed. Two species, however, are highly terrestrial, hardly ever using trees and seldom actually pecking wood! They are, the Andean Flicker Colaptes rupicola of the high Andes in South America & the Ground Woodpecker Geocolaptes olivaceus of Southern Africa. Here is a close-up of the former: a male of the puna race, in C Peru, November 2012 (Gerard Gorman).

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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.