Olivaceous piculet

Photo by Jose García (Birding Panama)

Common name:
olivaceous piculet (en); pica-pau-anão-azeitona (pt); picumne olivâtre (fr); carpinterito oliváceo (es); olivrücken-zwergspecht (de)


Taxonomy:
Order Piciformes
Family Picidae


Range:
These birds are found from Guatemala and Honduras, through Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, and into Colombia, western Venezuela, western Ecuador and north-western Peru.


Size:
This tinny woodpecker is 8-10 cm long and weighs 12-13 g.


Habitat:
Olivaceous piculets are found in dry forests, moist forests, along forests edges, and in shady pastures, plantations and second-growth vegetation. These birds are found from sea level up to an altitude of 2.500 m.


Diet:
They mostly feed in very slender dead branches and twigs, taking adult and larval ants and termites but also other insects and larvae.


Breeding:
The olivaceous piculet breeds in January-June. Both sexes help carve a neatly rounded cavity in dead trunks or in decaying fence-posts, 1-4 m above the ground. There the female lays 2-3 white eggs which are incubated by both parents for 14 days. The chicks are fed by both sexes and fledge 24-25 days after hatching.


Conservation:
IUCN status – LC (Least concern)
This species has a large breeding range and is described as fairly common. The population is suspected to be stable in the absence of evidence for any declines or substantial threats.