Striped Woodpecker

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

The Striped Woodpecker (Veniliornis lignarius) is a woodpecker found in southwestern South America. It occurs nothwest- 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 hitherto unique in its genus.

[edit] References

• BirdLife International (2004). Picoides lignarius. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

• 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

[edit] External links

• Aves de Chile: striped Woodpecker - Description and photos