Antillean piculet throat and belly is off-white with streaks and spots. The female is similar to the male, except larger and lacking the red spot on the forecrown. The plumage of juvenile birds is similar to the adults but duller. Unlike the true woodpeckers (Picinae), they do not drum on trees to advertise their ownership of a territory, instead calling in a loud and rapid whistle. This call, rendered as "kuk-kikikikekukuk", is also used as a contact call between pairs. The Antillean piculet feeds on insects, with ants and beetles forming a large part of the diet. They also consume a lot
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