Piciformes

Piciformes Temporal range: Early Eocene to present
Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Picodynastornithes
Order:	Piciformes Meyer & Wolf, 1810
Suborders and families
Galbuli Bucconidae Galbulidae Pici Ramphastides Megalaimidae Lybiidae Capitonidae Semnornithidae Ramphastidae Picides Indicatoridae Picidae For prehistoric taxa, see text
Synonyms
Galbuliformes Fürbringer, 1888

Nine families of largely arboreal birds make up the order Piciformes, the best-known of them being the Picidae, which includes the woodpeckers and close relatives. The Piciformes contain about 67 living genera with a little over 400 species, of which the Picidae (woodpeckers and relatives) make up about half.

In general, the Piciformes are insectivorous, although the barbets and toucans mostly eat fruit and the honeyguides are unique among birds in being able to digest beeswax (although insects make up the bulk of their diet). Nearly all Piciformes have parrot-like zygodactyl feet—two toes forward and two back, an arrangement that has obvious advantages for birds that spend much of their time on tree trunks. An exception are a few species of three-toed woodpeckers. The jacamars aside, Piciformes do not have down feathers at any age, only true feathers. They range in size from the rufous piculet at 8 centimetres in length, and weighing 7 grams, to the toco toucan, at 63 centimetres long, and weighing 680 grams. All nest in cavities and have altricial young.

Systematics

The Galbulidae and Bucconidae are often separated into a distinct Galbuliformes order. Analysis of nuclear genes confirms that they form a lineage of their own, but suggests that they are better treated as a suborder. The other families form another monophyletic group of suborder rank, but the barbets were determined to be paraphyletic with regard to the toucans and hence, the formerly all-encompassing Capitonidae have been split up. The woodpeckers and honeyguides are each other's closest relatives. According to some researchers, the entire order Piciformes should be included as a subgroup in Coraciiformes.

Evolution

Primozygodactylus, a zygodactylid bird

Reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the Piciformes has been hampered by poor understanding of the evolution of the zygodactyl foot. A number of prehistoric families and genera, from the Early Eocene Neanis and Hassiavis, the Zygodactylidae/Primoscenidae, Gracilitarsidae, Sylphornithidae, and "Homalopus", to the Miocene "Picus" gaudryi and the Pliocene Bathoceleus are sometimes tentatively assigned to this order. There are some extinct ancestral Piciformes known from fossils which have been difficult to place but at least in part probably belong to the Pici. The modern families are known to exist since the mid-late Oligocene to early Miocene; consequently, the older forms appear to be more basal. A large part of Piciform evolution seems to have occurred in Europe where only Picidae occur today; perhaps even some now exclusively Neotropical families have their origin in the Old World.

Classification

Order: PICIFORMES

• Unassigned (all fossil)
  • Piciformes gen. et sp. indet. IRScNB Av 65 (Early Oligocene of Boutersem, Belgium)
  • Piciformes gen. et sp. indet. SMF Av 429 (Late Oligocene of Herrlingen, Germany)
• Suborder Galbuli
  • Family Galbulidae – jacamars (18 species)
  • Family Bucconidae – puffbirds, nunbirds and nunlets (some 30 species)
• Suborder Pici
  • Unresolved and basal taxa (all fossil)
    • Genus Rupelramphastoides (Early Oligocene of Frauenweiler, Germany)
    • Genus Capitonides (Early – Middle Miocene of Europe)
    • Pici gen. et sp. indet. (Middle Miocene of Grive-Saint-Alban, France)
    • Family Miopiconidae (fossil)
    • Family Picavidae (fossil)
  • Infraorder Ramphastides
    • Family Megalaimidae – Asian barbets (about 25 species, recently split from Capitonidae)
    • Family Lybiidae – African barbets (about 40 species, recently split from Capitonidae)
    • Family Capitonidae – American barbets (about 15 species)
    • Family Semnornithidae – toucan-barbets (2 species, recently split from Capitonidae)
    • Family Ramphastidae – toucans (about 40 species)
  • Infraorder Picides
    • Family Indicatoridae – honeyguides (17 species)
    • Family Picidae – woodpeckers, piculets and wrynecks (over 200 species)

See also

• List of Piciformes by population
• List of North American birds (Piciiformes)

Further reading

• Gorman, Gerard (2004): Woodpeckers of Europe: A Study of the European Picidae. Bruce Coleman, UK. ISBN 1-872842-05-4.

External links

• Tree of Life Piciformes