Black-dotted piculet the "Handbook of the Birds of the World," which supports this view with a summary of unpublished data from M. Lentino. 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
Piculet Piculet The piculets are a distinctive subfamily, Picumninae, of small woodpeckers which occur mainly in tropical South America, with just three Asian and one African species. Like the true woodpeckers, piculets have large heads, long tongues which they use to extract their insect prey and zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backwards. However, they lack the stiff tail feathers that the true woodpeckers use when climbing trees, so they are more likely than their relatives to perch on a branch rather than an upright trunk. Their bills are shorter and less dagger-like than the true woodpeckers, so