Picumninae

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crurotarsi
Cladus: Archosauria
Cladus: Avemetatarsalia
Cladus: Ornithodira
Cladus: Dinosauromorpha
Cladus: Dinosauriformes
Cladus: Dracohors
Cladus: Dinosauria
Cladus: Saurischia
Cladus: Eusaurischia
Subordo: Theropoda
Cladus: Neotheropoda
Cladus: Averostra
Cladus: Tetanurae
Cladus: Avetheropoda
Cladus: Coelurosauria
Cladus: Tyrannoraptora
Cladus: Maniraptoromorpha
Cladus: Maniraptoriformes
Cladus: Maniraptora
Cladus: Pennaraptora
Cladus: Paraves
Cladus: Eumaniraptora
Cladus: Avialae
Classis/Infraclassis: Aves
Cladus: Avebrevicauda
Cladus: Pygostylia
Cladus: Ornithothoraces
Cladus: Ornithuromorpha
Cladus: Carinatae
Subclassis/Parvclassis: Neornithes
Infraclassis/Cohors: Neognathae
Cladus: Neoaves
Ordo: Piciformes

Familia: Picidae
Subfamilia: Picumninae
Genera: Picumnus - Sasia
Name

Picumninae G.R. Gray, 1840

Typus: Picumnus Temminck, 1825

References

Gray, G.R. 1840. A list of the genera of birds, with an indication of the typical species of each genus, compiled from various sources. 80 pp. Richard and John Taylor (London). p. 54 BHL DOI: 10.5962/bhl.title.13777 Reference page.

Vernacular names
English: Piculets
hrvatski: Žunice
magyar: Törpeharkályformák
日本語: ヒメキツツキ亜科

The piculets are a distinctive subfamily, Picumninae, of small woodpeckers which occur mainly in tropical South America, with just three Asian and one African species.

Like the true woodpeckers, piculets have large heads, long tongues which they use to extract their insect prey and zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backwards. However, they lack the stiff tail feathers that the true woodpeckers use when climbing trees, so they are more likely than their relatives to perch on a branch rather than an upright trunk.

Their bills are shorter and less dagger-like than the true woodpeckers, so they look for insects and grubs mainly in decaying wood. Similarly, they re-use woodpecker holes for nesting, rather than making their own holes. The eggs are white, as with many hole nesters.

Typically these birds have grey or dull green upperparts and dark-streaked white underparts.
Systematics and evolution

Although not well known from fossils, the evolution of piculets is now considered rather straightforward. The disjunct occurrence of the genera, with one African species of the Southeast Asian Sasia and one Southeast Asian species of the American Picumnus is of comparatively recent origin. Molecular dating, calibrated with geographic events in the absence of a good fossil record, points at the Late Miocene, c. 8 MYA, as the point where the two genera divided into their two respective lineages. At that time, there was a notable global cooling period. The molecular distances between piculets and woodpeckers are comparatively small for subfamilies, agreeing with the hypothesis that the split between the three groups of woodpecker-like picids subfamilies occurred only during the Miocene climatic optimum, around 15 MYA. The later radiation of South American piculets is probably due to changes in topology and climate fluctuations during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. The genus Verreauxia may be accepted because of pronounced morphological similarities, but the two Picumnus lineages, despite having diverged long ago, are virtually alike except for head coloration.[1]

The Antillean piculet (Nesoctites micromegas) has proven to be a very distinct species evolutionarily between piculets and woodpeckers[2] and thus is nowadays placed in a subfamily of its own.[3]

The arrangement of species in the genera is as follows[4]

Genus Picumnus

Speckled piculet, P. innominatus
Bar-breasted piculet, P. aurifrons
Orinoco piculet, P. pumilus
Lafresnaye's piculet, P. lafresnayi
Golden-spangled piculet, P. exilis
Black-dotted piculet, P. nigropunctatus
Ecuadorian piculet, P. sclateri
Scaled piculet, P. squamulatus
White-bellied piculet, P. spilogaster
Arrowhead piculet, P. minutissimus
Spotted piculet, P. pygmaeus
Speckle-chested piculet, P. steindachneri
Varzea piculet, P. varzeae
White-barred piculet, P. cirratus
Ocellated piculet, P. dorbignyanus
Ochre-collared piculet, P. temminckii
White-wedged piculet, P. albosquamatus
Rusty-necked piculet, P. fuscus
Rufous-breasted piculet, P. rufiventris
Ochraceous piculet, P. limae
Mottled piculet, P. nebulosus
Plain-breasted piculet, P. castelnau
Fine-barred piculet, P. subtilis
Olivaceous piculet, P. olivaceus
Greyish piculet, P. granadensis
Chestnut piculet, P. cinnamomeus

Genus Sasia

Rufous piculet, S. abnormis
White-browed piculet, S. ochracea

Genus Verreauxia

African piculet, V. africana

References

Fuchs et al., 2006.
Benz et al., 2006.
Benz, Brett W.; Robbins, Mark B.; Peterson, A. Townsend (2006). "Evolutionary history of woodpeckers and allies (Aves: Picidae): Placing key taxa on the phylogenetic tree". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 40 (2): 389–399. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.02.021. PMID 16635580.

del Hoyo et al. (2002)

Benz, Brett W.; Robbins, Mark B. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2006) Evolutionary history of woodpeckers and allies (Aves: Picidae): Placing key taxa on the phylogenetic tree. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40: 389–399. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.02.021 PMID 16635580 (HTML abstract)
del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. (editors) (2002): Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 7: Jacamars to Woodpeckers. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-22-9
Fuchs, J.; Ohlson, J. I.; Ericson, Per G. P. & Pasquet, E. (2006): Molecular phylogeny and biogeographic history of the piculets (Piciformes: Picumninae). Journal of Avian Biology 37(5): 487–496. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2006.03768.x (HTML abstract)