The Ecuadorian piculet (''Picumnus sclateri'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Picumninae 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 the ...

of the woodpecker family

Picidae Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. M ...

. It is found in Ecuador and Peru.

Taxonomy and systematics

The Ecuadorian piculet has three subspecies, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In the ...

''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.Schulenberg, T. S. and C. W. Sedgwick (2020). Ecuadorian Piculet (''Picumnus sclateri''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.ecupic1.01 retrieved January 10, 2023

Description

The Ecuadorian piculet is long and weighs about . 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 underparts are much thinner. ''P. s. porcullae'' has pale beige streaking on the upperparts and its underparts have black barring and little to no streaking.

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''P. s. parvistriatus'' of the Ecuadorian piculet is the northernmost, and its range is separate from that of the other two. It is found in western Ecuador from

Manabí Province Manabí () is a province in Ecuador. Its capital is Portoviejo. The province is named after the Manabí people. Demographics Ethnic groups as of the Ecuadorian census of 2010: *Mestizo 66.7% * Montubio 19.2% * Afro-Ecuadorian 6.0% *White 7 ...

to northern

Guayas Province Guayas () is a coastal Provinces of Ecuador, province in Ecuador. It is bordered to the west by Manabí Province, Manabí, Santa Elena Province, Ecuador, Santa Elena, and the Pacific Ocean (as the Gulf of Guayaquil); to the east by Los Ríos Pr ...

. ''P. s. sclateri'' is found from El Oro and Loja provinces in southwestern Ecuador south into extreme northwestern Peru. ''P. s. porcullae'' is found in northwestern Peru's departments of

Piura Piura is a city in northwestern Peru located in the Sechura Desert on the Piura River. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province. Its population was 484,475 as of 2017. It was here that Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro fou ...

and Lambayeque. The Ecuadorian piculet primarily inhabits deciduous forest and arid scrublands, though in Loja it also occurs in more humid landscapes. In elevation it ranges in Ecuador from near sea level to about , though mostly is below . In Peru it occurs up to but mostly is below .

Behavior

Feeding

The Ecuadorian piculet's diet is mostly very small insects but is not known in detail. It actively forages on thin branches, picking and tapping.

Social behavior

The Ecuadorian piculet is usually seen singly, in pairs, or in small groups that might be families. It often associates with loose flocks of other small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

Breeding

The Ecuadorian piculet's breeding season in Ecuador is from July through September and in Peru from June to September. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.

Vocalization

The Ecuadorian piculet is described as "rather quiet", but does have an apparent song that is "a slow, descending series of notes (generally 3, sometimes up to 7): ''swee swee swee''". It also makes "a high-pitched ''tseee-tsut'' or ''tseeet''" and "a quick, stuttering series...''tititi-swee''."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the Ecuadorian piculet as being of Least Concern. It has a restricted range, and though its population size is not known it is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is described as uncommon in both countries and " man activity has little short-term direct effect on heEcuadorian Piculet, other than the local effects of habitat destruction."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1261889 Ecuadorian piculet Birds of Ecuador Ecuadorian piculet Ecuadorian piculet Taxonomy articles created by Polbot