eWestern Birds
The Quarterly Journal of Western Field Ornithologists
The Generic Distinction of Pied Woodpeckers
M. Ralph Browning
ABSTRACT: The ten species of New World four-toed woodpeckers (scalaris, nuttallii, pubescens, villosus, stricklandi, arizonae, borealis, albolarvatus, lignarius, and mixtus and the two boreal three-toed species (arcticus and tridactylus), currently combined in the genus Picoides, differ, in addition to the number of toes, in modifications of the skull, ribs, the belly of the pubo-ischio-femoralis muscle, head plumage, and behavior. I recommend that the generic name Dryobates be reinstituted for the New World four-toed woodpeckers.