Woodpeckers of the World: Ground Woodpecker adult male

Wednesday 22 February 2017

Ground Woodpecker adult male

Following on from the previous post, here is a male Ground Woodpecker Geocolaptes olivaceus. Photo taken in February 2017 in the Sani Pass, Lesotho. A few hundred metres above the site where the previous image was taken (Gerard Gorman).

1 comment:

Anonymous10 July 2017 at 08:28
Hi, thanks for your post, we drove Sani pass a couple of months ago, but unfortunately didn't get to see this beautiful bird. Great photo!

Brett, South Africa
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Background

Woodpeckers, the Picidae, are Piciformes, an order that includes some of the oldest avian lineages. The Piciformes probably originated about 60 million years ago in the Tertiary period and became distinct from their closest relatives some 50 million years ago. Depending upon which taxonomy is followed, and the fact that the status of some species is unclear, around 240-260 woodpecker species probably exist globally. The Picidae includes three subfamilies: Jynginae (wrynecks), Picumninae (piculets) and the Picinae, the “true woodpeckers”. In terms of size, behaviour, distribution and the habitats they use, the Picinae are a fairly diverse group of birds with six distinct tribes. They are widespread and found from sea-level to high-altitudes but absent from the Arctic, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar and some other islands. Worldwide woodpeckers are usually, but not exclusively, associated with trees.