Leuconotopicus is a genus of woodpeckers in the family Picidae native to North and South America.

Leuconotopicus
White-headed woodpecker (Leuconotopicus albolarvatus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Piciformes
Family: Picidae
Tribe: Melanerpini
Genus: Leuconotopicus
Malherbe, 1845
Species

See text

Taxonomy

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The genus was erected by the French ornithologist Alfred Malherbe in 1845 with Strickland's woodpecker (Leuconotopicus stricklandi) as the type species.[1] The name Leuconotopicus combines the Ancient Greek leukos meaning "white", nōton meaning "back" and pikos meaning "woodpecker".[2] The genus is sister to the genus Veniliornis and is one of eight genera placed in the tribe Melanerpini within the woodpecker subfamily Picinae.[3] The species now placed in this genus were previously assigned to Picoides.[4][5]

The genus contains the following six species:[5]

Genus Leuconotopicus Malherbe, 1845 – six species
Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population
Red-cockaded woodpecker

 
Male
 
Female

Leuconotopicus borealis
(Vieillot, 1809)
southeastern United States from Florida to Virginia, as far west as eastern Texas and Oklahoma; formerly Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, and Tennessee
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 NT 


Smoky-brown woodpecker

 
Male
 
Female

Leuconotopicus fumigatus
(D'Orbigny, 1840)

Five subspecies
Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Arizona woodpecker

 
Male
 
Female

Leuconotopicus arizonae
(Hargitt, 1886)
southern Arizona and New Mexico and the Sierra Madre Occidental of western Mexico
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Strickland's woodpecker


Leuconotopicus stricklandi
(Malherbe, 1845)
Mexico
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Hairy woodpecker

 
Male
 
Female

Leuconotopicus villosus
(Linnaeus, 1766)

Seventeen subspecies
  • L. v. septentrionalis (Nuttall, 1840)
  • L. v. picoideus (Osgood, 1901)
  • L. v. harrisi (Audubon, 1838)
  • L. v. terraenovae (Batchelder, 1908)
  • L. v. villosus (Linnaeus, 1766)
  • L. v. orius (Oberholser, 1911)
  • L. v. monticola (Anthony, 1898)
  • L. v. leucothorectis (Oberholser, 1911)
  • L. v. audubonii (Swainson, 1832)
  • L. v. hyloscopus (Cabanis & Heine, 1863)
  • L. v. icastus (Oberholser, 1911)
  • L. v. intermedius (Nelson, 1900)
  • L. v. jardinii Malherbe, 1845
  • L. v. sanctorum (Nelson, 1897)
  • L. v. extimus (Bangs, 1902)
  • L. v. piger (Allen, GM, 1905)
  • L. v. maynardi (Ridgway, 1887)
Bahamas, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and the United States; vagrant to Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos Islands
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


White-headed woodpecker

 
Male
 
Female

Leuconotopicus albolarvatus
(Cassin, 1850)

Two subspecies
  • L. a. albolarvatus (Cassin, 1850)
    Common white-headed woodpecker
  • L. a. gravirostris (Grinnell, 1902)
    Southern white-headed woodpecker
British Columbia through southern California
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


References

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  1. ^ Malherbe, Alfred (1845). "Description de trois espèces nouvelles du genre Picus, Linné". Revue Zoologique par la Société Cuvierienne (in French and Latin). 8: 373.
  2. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Fuchs, J.; Pons, J.M. (2015). "A new classification of the pied woodpeckers assemblage (Dendropicini, Picidae) based on a comprehensive multi-locus phylogeny". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 88: 28–37. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2015.03.016. PMID 25818851.
  5. ^ a b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David (eds.). "Woodpeckers". World Bird List Version 6.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 5 May 2016.