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A male great spotted woodpecker. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) recognizes these 241 species of woodpeckers which make up the family Picidae. They are distributed among 36 genera, six of which have only one species.
The genus Campephilus was introduced by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840, with the ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) as the type species. [3] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek kampē meaning "caterpillar" and philos meaning "loving". [4]
The largest surviving species is the great slaty woodpecker, which weighs 430 g (15 oz) on average and up to 563 g (19.9 oz), and measures 45 to 55 cm (18 to 22 in), but the extinct imperial woodpecker, at 55 to 61 cm (22 to 24 in), and ivory-billed woodpecker, around 48 to 53 cm (19 to 21 in) and 516 g (18.2 oz), were probably both larger.
The genus forms part of the woodpecker subfamily Picinae and has a sister relationship to the genus Dryocopus whose species are found in Eurasia and the Americas. The genus Piculus is a member of the tribe Picini and belongs to a clade that contains five genera: Colaptes , Piculus , Mulleripicus , Dryocopus and Celeus .
The woodpeckers and honeyguides are each other's closest relatives. [3] According to some researchers, [ 4 ] the entire order Piciformes should be included as a subgroup in Coraciiformes . The phylogenetic relationship between the nine families that make up the order Piciformes is shown in the cladogram below.
Like other woodpeckers, insects form a large part of the diet, being caught on the wing in some species, but fruit is also eaten in large quantities and some species consume sap. They all nest in holes that they excavate in trees, and the red-crowned woodpecker and the Hoffmann's woodpecker are unusual in that they sometimes enter their holes ...
The tongue of the woodpecker is long and ends in a barb. With its tongue the woodpecker skewers the grub and draws it out of the trunk. Woodpeckers also use their beaks to create larger holes for their nests which are 15–45 cm (6–18 inches) below the opening. These nests are lined only with wood chips and hold 2–8 white eggs.
Pardipicus is a genus of bird in the family Picidae, or woodpeckers, that are native to the African tropical rainforest. Most species are native to woodland and savanna rather than deep forest, and multiple species exhibit either arboreal or terrestrial foraging strategies.