Striped woodpecker

Striped woodpecker
File:Striped Woodpecker.jpg
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Picidae
Genus:	Veniliornis
Species:	V. lignarius
Binomial name
Veniliornis lignarius (Molina, 1782)
Synonyms
Picoides lignarius

The striped woodpecker (Veniliornis lignarius) is a woodpecker found in southwestern South America. It occurs northwest- and southwestwards of the range of its sister taxon, the checkered woodpecker, in the Cordillera Patagonica and its foothills, and in another population in the Andes of Bolivia and the adjacent foothills. As the latter is isolated and differs in numerous respects, it is being considered to separate it as V. (lignarius) puncticeps.

This species was long placed in the genus Picoides where it was, together with its sister species, considered something of an oddball. In 2006, Moore et al. published research on mtDNA COI and Cyt b sequences which suggests that the striped and checkered Woodpeckers are actually most closely related to the white-spotted woodpecker, Veniliornis spilogaster, a peculiar Picoides-like species which also was previously unique in its genus.

References

• del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. (editors) (2002): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol 7: Jacamars to Woodpeckers: Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-22-9

• Moore, William S.; Weibel, Amy C. & Agius, Andrea (2006): Mitochondrial DNA phylogeny of the woodpecker genus Veniliornis (Picidae, Picinae) and related genera implies convergent evolution of plumage patterns. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 87: 611–624. PDF fulltext

External links

• Aves de Chile: striped Woodpecker - Description and photos