Talk:Picinae

Species

There are about 210 species of woodpecker, so this article may eventually get unmanageable. It is undesirable to split genera, so I would suggest a possible breakdown might be to direct to the following future groups from the family article.

• Cosmopolitan woodpeckers: Some genera, like Dendrocopus have representatives in both the Old and New Worlds.
• Old World woodpeckers or
  • Woodpeckers of Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Woodpeckers of the rest of the Old World
• New World woodpeckers

Distribution

It is my impression that woodpeckers are uncommon in Australia and New Zealand. Should "worldwide" be qualified here? --Big_Iron 09:52, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

I seem to recall Jared Diamond writing that Madagascar has no woodpeckers either; he asserts that the Aye aye has taken up the vacant environmental niche. -- Alan Peakall 22:34, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

I remove the drive-by clean up list tag. The list of species is correctly and highly structured in the generally accepted taxonomic series. The fact that there are a lot of woodpeckers is not in itself a reason to cleanup. If the tag stays, there will be a well-meaning but wrong "improvement" like making the list alphabetical. jimfbleak 06:39, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Creationism

I think it is worth mentioning that the woodpecker's tongue is often used as "evidence" for creationists. I dont know much about it myself. Creationist info page here: http://www.creationism.org/heinze/Woodpecker.htm Evolution info page here: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/woodpecker/woodpecker.html Hpmons 14:16, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

I disagree -why give credibility to such nonsense? jimfbleak 15:47, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Everything is proof for creationists. Thay leave out facts, or draw non-sequitors, or make up or ignore stuff as needed. 64.252.33.156 (talk) 20:29, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

PLEASE do not add pro or anti creationsim statements in the middle of the article. Add a "pro/anti" sentiments section but do NOT compare "design" of a freaking woodpecker in the main section of physiology of the animal. -Moocats (talk) 16:27, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Eggs Laid by Females?

"These nests are lined only with wood chips and hold 2–8 white eggs laid by the females."

How many examples do we have of organisms whose eggs are laid by males? rowley (talk) 18:57, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

I object to: "Basicaly whatver they can find." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.196.166.215 (talk) 21:04, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Genus Dendropicos

Some of the species listed in genus Dendropicos seem to actually belong to genus Thripias and genus Mesopicos.. should these be included under the correct genus? i am not sure how to do this on this page.. but wasn't sure if anyone else had noticed.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ltshears (talk • contribs) 23:39, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Woodpecker definition

This statement in the article seems to read that there are woodpeckers which do not peck wood: "the habit of some species of tapping and pecking noisily". Could that be explained?

In man-on-the-street usage, it seems unlikely people would call a bird a "woodpecker" if it didn't make an obvious wood-pecking noise. Is this a word backformation, where a larger group of birds than ones "pecking wood" is included so as to match the scientific classification?

Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (talk) 14:07, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

The two wrynecks don't peck wood, but then they're not named as woodpeckers. I think what is being suggested is that some woodpeckers, like Pileated or Great Spotted drum on usually dead trees as communication to find a mate or advertise territory, whereas others like Green mainly call as communication, rather than drum, and often feed on the ground on ants. jimfbleak (talk) 16:44, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Picture identification?

I've taken a picture of a Woodpecker (from the Northeast United States), and if the article on that particular type of woodpecker needs a picture, I'd like to upload the image and add it. The problem is, I don't know what kind of woodpecker it is. If I upload the image (in an attempt to get some assitance figuring out what kind of woodpecker it is), will it be deleted right away? -- PenelopeIsMe 23:29, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

upload the image, and put it on to the bird project page with an id request. As long as you license it correctly from the drop down list (own work cc-by-sa-3.0 and GFDL) it won't be deleted. jimfbleak (talk) 05:28, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Great! Good idea - thank you. -- PenelopeIsMe 09:19, 11 July 2008 (UTC)