Striped Woodpecker

About the Striped Woodpecker

The striped woodpecker (Veniliornis lignarius) is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. The striped woodpecker was originally described as Picus Lignarius. It was later placed in Dyctiopicus, which was merged into Dendrocopos, which in turn was merged into Picoides where it and its sister species the checkered woodpecker (V. mixtus) were considered outliers. In 2006, Moore et al. published research on mtDNA COI and Cyt b sequences which suggested that the two belong in genus Veniliornis. That treatment is now (2023) followed by the International Ornithological Committee and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World. However, starting in 2018, the American Ornithological Society and the Clements taxonomy moved all species of genus Veniliornis into genus Dryobates. In addition, there have been suggestions that the striped and checkered woodpeckers are conspecific.

The striped woodpecker is treated as monotypic by all of the above taxonomic systems. However, the population in Bolivia differs in several ways from that further south and may deserve to be treated... Wikipedia →