The chestnut piculet (''Picumnus cinnamomeus'') 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

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

assigns the chestnut piculet these four subspecies: *''P. c. cinnamomeus'' Wagler, 1829 *''P. c. perijanus'' Zimmer, J.T. & Phelps, W.H., 1944 *''P. c. persaturatus'' Haffer, 1961 *''P. c. venezuelensis''

Cory As a given name, Cory is used by both males and females. It is a variation of the name Cora, which has Greek origins and is the maiden name of the goddess Persephone. The name also can have origins from the Gaelic word ''coire'', which means "in ...

, 1913

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

's ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

'' and the

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 2022 ...

split a fifth subspecies, ''P. c. larensis'' ( Aveledo, 1998), from ''P. c. venezuelensis''.HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip retrieved December 13, 2022Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022 This article follows the four-subspecies model.

Description

The chestnut piculet is long. Adult males of the nominate subspecies ''P. c. cinnamomeus'' have a pale creamy forehead, a black crown with yellow-tipped feathers, and a black nape with white-tipped feathers. The rest of their body is deep rufous to rusty brown, with the rump and belly being a bit paler than the rest. Their wings are dark brown with cinnamon to rufous edges and tips to the feathers. Their tail is brownish black; the innermost pair of feathers have a cinnamon stripe on the inner webs and the outer two pairs a cinnamon stripe on the outer webs. Their iris is brown, the beak blackish, the bare skin around the eye yellow, and the legs gray. Adult females are identical but with no yellow on the crown and white spots only on the hindcrown and nape.Winkler, H., D. A. Christie, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Chestnut Piculet (''Picumnus cinnamomeus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.chepic1.01 retrieved January 16, 2023 Subspecies ''P. c. persaturatus'' is a richer and darker chestnut than the nominate, and has brighter wing edging and less defined chestnut stripes on the tail. Its females have white spots on their entire crown. ''P. c. perijanus'' is similar to ''persaturatus'' but a little lighter, and the female's crown spotting is heavier. ''P. c. venezuelensis'' is as dark as ''persaturatus'' but with a cinnamon-tawny forehead, and the female has white spots only on the crown, not the nape.

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies of the chestnut piculet are found thus: *''P. c. cinnamomeus'', coastal northern Colombia south into the lower

Cauca River The Cauca River () is a river in Colombia that lies between the Occidental and Central cordilleras. From its headwaters in southwestern Colombia near the city of Popayán, it joins the Magdalena River near Magangue in Bolivar Department, and th ...

and Magdalena River valleys and east slightly into Venezuela's

Guajira Peninsula The Guajira Peninsula ( es, Península de La Guajira, links=no, also spelled ''Goajira'', mainly in colonial period texts, guc, Hikükariby) is a peninsula in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela in the Caribbean. It is the northernm ...

*''P. c. perijanus'', the northern basin of northwestern Venezuela's

Lake Maracaibo Lake Maracaibo (Spanish: Lago de Maracaibo; Anu: Coquivacoa) is a lagoon in northwestern Venezuela, the largest lake in South America and one of the oldest on Earth, formed 36 million years ago in the Andes Mountains. The fault in the northern se ...

*''P. c. persaturatus'', Serranía de San Jerónimo in northwestern Colombia's Bolívar Department *''P. c. venezuelensis'', Venezuela in the south and eastern Lake Maracaibo basin and ("''larensis''") into the departments of

Falcón ) , anthem = , image_map = Falcon in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_map_alt = , pushpin_mapsiz ...

and Lara The chestnut piculet inhabits a wide variety of landscapes including rainforest, deciduous forest, open areas with scattered trees, arid and semi-arid scrublands, mangroves, and coffee plantations. Thorny woodlands appear to be its favorite. In elevation it occurs from sea level to in Venezuela and to in Colombia.

Behavior

Movement

The chestnut piculet is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The chestnut piculet forages actively at all levels of it habitat but tends to stay in dense vegetation. It is typically seen singly, in pairs, or in small family groups and joins mixed species foraging flocks. Its diet has not been studied but is assumed to be ants and other small insects.

Breeding

The chestnut piculet's breeding season appears to include at least from December to March, but nothing else is known about its breeding biology.

Vocalization

The chestnut piculet's song is "a series of 3-8 high-pitched notes ''ti.ti.ti.ti.ti'' descending in pitch".

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 chestnut piculet as being of Least Concern, though its population size and trend are not known. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered common in Colombia but has few records in Venezuela. "Considering that this species is not so inconspicuous as most other piculets, it is rather poorly known."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1267561

chestnut piculet The chestnut piculet (''Picumnus cinnamomeus'') is a species of bird in subfamily Picumninae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela. Taxonomy and systematics The International Ornithological Committee assigns ...

Birds of Colombia Birds of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Birds of Venezuela

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot