Black-dotted piculet Black-dotted piculet The black-dotted piculet ("Picumnus nigropunctatus"), also known as the black-spotted piculet, is a Venezuelan endemic species of bird in the Picidae, or woodpecker family. Its taxonomic status is controversial. This species is locally common in areas with bushes or trees (possibly including mangroves), near water or waterlogged, in the Venezuelan coastal lowlands (below 100m) from southern Delta Amacuro to southeastern Sucre. The black-dotted piculet resembles other members of the genus "Picumnus". Its most distinctive mark is pale pure yellow underparts with sparse black dots on the lower breast and usually on the belly and undertail coverts. In southeastern
Piculet of pronounced morphological similarities, but the two "Picumnus" lineages, despite having diverged long ago, are virtually alike except for head coloration (Fuchs "et al.", 2006). The Antillean piculet ("Nesoctites micromegas") has proven to be a very distinct species evolutionarily between piculets and woodpeckers (Benz "et al.", 2006) and thus is nowadays placed in a subfamily of its own. The arrangement of species in the genera follows del Hoyo "et al." (2002). Genus "Picumnus" Genus "Verreauxia" (sometimes included in "Sasia") Genus "Sasia" Piculet The piculets are a distinctive subfamily, Picumninae, of small woodpeckers which occur mainly in tropical South America, with