Orinoco piculet
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
SPECIES
Picumnus pumilus

The Orinoco piculet (Picumnus pumilus ) is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

Appearance

The adult Orinoco piculet is about 9 cm (3.5 in) long. The upper parts are olive brown, sometimes lightly barred with tawny brown, and the underparts are cream or buff, boldly barred with dark brown. The head is brown speckled with white and has a white post-ocular streak. The male has faint yellow streaking or spotting on the fore crown but the female lacks this. The primary and secondary wing feathers are brown tipped with green, and the tail is black, the two central feathers having white inner webs and the outer feathers having a white bar near the tip. The beak is blackish and the legs grey. The call is a thin "seep-seep" and the song a rather longer suite of similar notes.

Distribution

Geography

Continents
Biogeographical realms

The Orinoco piculet is endemic to eastern Colombia and northwestern Brazil, and is likely to be present also in the adjacent part of southern Venezuela. Its habitat is open tropical humid rainforest, gallery forest, wooded savannah and clumps of trees and scrub at altitudes of up to 500 m (1,640 ft).

Orinoco piculet habitat map

Biome

Orinoco piculet habitat map
Orinoco piculet
Attribution-ShareAlike License

Habits and Lifestyle

The Orinoco piculet is an active and acrobatic little bird, foraging at all levels of the canopy, sometimes in small mixed-species flocks, for termites, ants and other small invertebrates. Its breeding habits are poorly known, but it may nest in November and December.

Lifestyle
Seasonal behavior
Bird's call

Population

Population number

The Orinoco piculet has a wide range and is said to be generally uncommon. Its numbers are likely in decline as the tropical rainforest is gradually cleared, but this is not at such a fast rate as to make the International Union for Conservation of Nature rate it in a more threatened category than "least concern".

References

1. Orinoco piculet Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orinoco_piculet
2. Orinoco piculet on The IUCN Red List site - https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22680700/92873502
3. Xeno-canto bird call - https://xeno-canto.org/706536

More Fascinating Animals to Learn About