Picoides pubescens and Melanerpes carolinus

Downy Woodpecker and Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Presented by Noah D. Kahn

Permanent email address: nkahn@arches.uga.edu

Class email address: 350kahn@dial.pick.uga.edu

Red-Bellied Woodpecker, courtesy of Dan Sudia Downy Woodpecker, courtesy of Dan Sudia

Higher Taxon

Class Aves

Order Piciformes

Family Picidae

General Information

According to ancient Roman myth, Saturn's son, Picus, was a visionary forest god. A sorceress named Circe found Picus particularly attractive and repeatedly tried to court him. But when she was rejected, the spiteful sorceress transformed the deity into a woodpecker. Now the entire family of woodpecker's commemorates Picus' fate, as they are collectively known as the Picidae.

The woodpecker family is further divided into three well known subfamilies, the typical woodpeckers (Picinae), the piculets (Picumninae), and the wrynecks (Jynginae). Woodpeckers are distributed worldwide, absent only from the polar regions and Australia. The approximately 200 extant species are found mostly in wooded regions, with some living in the treeless areas of Africa and South America. The 171 species of Picinae primarily climb up the trunks of trees using their tails as props. They peck into bark and wood, and nest in holes that they excavate. Piculets are comprised of 31 very small species found in the tropical zones around the world, and they balance without using their tails. With only two species of wrynecks on Earth, they are believed to represent the ancestral lineage of the woodpecker family. Wrynecks are so named because they have the rare ability to completely contort their necks and rotate their heads in a full circle. (Skutch,1985)

Species List

A species list displays the scientific and common names of birds in the Genera Picoides and Melanerpes, of which the Downy Woodpecker and the Red-Bellied Woodpecker are members, respectively.

Identification Guide

The Picidae form one family within the avian order Piciformes. The order is characterized by a "zygodactyl toe arrangement (two toes facing forward, two backward), special arrangements of the toe tendons and leg muscles, lack of basipterygoid processes in the skull, syrinx with one pair of tracheobronchial muscles, presence of 14 cervical vertebrae, lack of down feathers in adults, hole-nesting habits, and the laying of white eggs" (Short 1982). One suborder of the Piciformes are the Pici, who possess distinguishing physiological characteristics separating them from the other suborders, Galbulidae and Bucconidae. The family Picidae lies within the suborder Pici, and feature a chisel-tipped bill and a long, extendable tongue. They also possess a unique pelvic arrangement, a thick, bony skull, and engage in tree-foraging habits and drumming signals. Woodpeckers have straight, hard beaks,and are born blind and naked after a short incubation period. The Family ranges in size from 7 grams to possibly 700 grams, and in wing length from 44 millimeters in Picumnus aurifrons to 313 millimeters in Campephilus imperialis.

Comparison of the Downy and Red-Bellied Woodpeckers

Diagnostic Features:

The Downy Woodpecker, found in all of North America, is much smaller than the Red-Bellied Woodpecker at only 22 to 33 grams, and a short wing length ranging from 83 to 105 millimeters. The Downy's ventral side is white to grayish or brownish yellow, while its back is mostly black with some white running down the center. It has black wings with white spots. The head and neck have white stripes bordering the eye and extending the length of the neck. Males of the species also have a narrow area of red on their nape.

The range of the Red-Bellied is limited to eastern North America. This bird is larger than the Downy, as it averages 67 to 91 grams in weight, and its wing length spans 118 to 136 millimeters. It is "grayish below, barred black and white above with a whitish rump, white in central and outer tail feathers, a red nape, red to pink nasal tuft, and an orange to red abdominal patch." In addition, the wings have a white patch of feathers on them. (Short 1982)

References

1. 1977. Annotated Checklist of Georgia Birds. Checklist Committee of Georgia Ornothological Society.

2. Lawrence, L. deK.. 1967. A comparative life-history study of four species of woodpeckers. Ornith Monographs, No.5. pp.156.

3. Nicholson, Charles P. 1997. Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Tennessee. University of Tennessee Press. Knoxville, Tennessee. ISBN#0-87049-987-4

4. Short, Lester L. 1982. Woodpeckers of the World. Foris Publications. Greenville, Delaware. ISBN#0-913176-05-2

5. Skutch, Alexander. 1985. Life of the Woodpecker. Ibis Publishing Company. Santa Monica, California. ISBN#0-934797-00-5

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Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to the following individuals for helping me complete this assignment.