Sunda pygmy woodpecker

The Sunda pygmy woodpecker (Yungipicus moluccensis), also known as the Sunda woodpecker, is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Some taxonomic authorities continue to place this species in the genus Dendrocopos or Picoides.

Sunda pygmy woodpecker
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Class: Aves
Order: Piciformes
Family: Picidae
Genus: Yungipicus
Species:
Y. moluccensis
Binomial name
Yungipicus moluccensis
(Gmelin, JF, 1788)
Synonyms

Picoides moluccensis
Dendrocopos moluccensis

Taxonomy

The Sunda pygmy woodpecker was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other woodpeckers in the genus Picus and coined the binomial name Picus moluccensis.[2] Gmelin based his description on "Le petit épeiche brun des Moluques" that had been described in 1780 by the French polymath Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.[3][4] The locality was originally specified as the Maluku Islands. This was an error and has been corrected to the state of Malacca in Malaysia.[5] The Sunda pygmy woodpecker is now one of seven species placed in the genus Yungipicus that was introduced in 1854 by Charles Lucien Bonaparte.[6][7]

Two subspecies are recognised:[7]

Description

This is a small woodpecker with an overall length of around 13 cm (5.1 in). It has a greyish brown capped head, dark brown ear covers with two rather broad whitish grey bands narrowing towards neck. Upper parts greyish brown with white wings tipped with white thus appearing striped. Tail short and blackish with white bands. Lores and throat white leading into dirty white underparts. Upper breast streaked with brown reducing towards vent. Whitish underwing coverts with pale brown. Sexes dimorphic. Males have a reddish orange crown which is absent in females.[8]

Adult Sunda woodpecker

Distribution and habitat

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical mangrove forest, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.[9]

Behaviour and ecology

A common visitor to urban areas and forests in Singapore. Often found singly or in pairs rapidly moving up trees. Found from ground right up into the topmost branches of trees on dead branches.[8]

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Picoides moluccensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1788). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 1 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 439.
  3. Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1780). "Le petit épeiche brun des Moluques". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 7. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale. p. 68.
  4. Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de; Martinet, François-Nicolas; Daubenton, Edme-Louis; Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie (1765–1783). "Petit pic des Moluques". Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle. Vol. 8. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. Plate 748, Fig. 2.
  5. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1948). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 6. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 203.
  6. Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1854). "Quadro dei volucri zigodattili ossia passeri a piedi scansori". In de Luca, Serafino; Müller, D. (eds.). L'Ateneo Italiano; raccolta di documenti e memorie relative al progresso delle scienze fisiche (in Italian). Vol. 2. Parigi [Paris]: Victor Masson. pp. 116–129 [123].
  7. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2023). "Woodpeckers". IOC World Bird List Version 13.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  8. Winkler, H.; Christie, D.A. (2021). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker (Yungipicus moluccensis), version 1.1". Birds of the World. Ithaca, NY, USA: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. doi:10.2173/bow.bncwoo2.01.1.
  9. Robson, Craig, and Richard Allen. New Holland field guide to the birds of South-East Asia. New Holland Publishers, 2005.


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