Ecuadorian Piculet

About the Ecuadorian Piculet

The Ecuadorian piculet (Picumnus sclateri) is a species of bird in subfamily Picumninae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Ecuador and Peru. The Ecuadorian piculet has three subspecies, the nominate P. s. sclateri (Taczanowski, 1877), P. s. parvistriatus (Chapman, 1921), and P. s. porcullae (Bond, J, 1954). P. s. parvistriatus was originally described as a separate species.

The Ecuadorian piculet is 9 to 10 cm (3.5 to 3.9 in) long and weighs about 10 to 12 g (0.35 to 0.42 oz). Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a black cap with tiny yellow spots on the forehead and tiny white ones on the rest of it. Their upperparts are gray-brown with obscure darker bars. The upper side of their tail is blackish; the innermost pair of feathers have mostly white inner webs and the outer three pairs have a white area near the tip. Their underparts are whitish with black or dusky barring on the breast and flanks and black streaks on the belly. Adult females are identical but for whitish spots on their entire crown.

Subspecies P. s. parvistriatus has larger white spots on the crown than the nominate, and the bars and streaks on the... Wikipedia →