Speckle-chested piculet the natural forest within its range is cleared through logging, to make way for agriculture, coffee plantations and grazing land. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being endangered. It is an inconspicuous bird, and it is possible that further, unknown populations may exist in remote forests in the area. Speckle-chested piculet The speckle-chested piculet ("Picumnus steindachneri") is a species of bird in the family Picidae (woodpeckers) endemic to Peru. Its natural habitats are tropical moist lowland and montane forests. It is threatened by habitat destruction as the forests are cleared to make way
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