Alternative name: Guianan Piculet
- Picumnus minutissimus
Identification
9-10cm. A tiny woodpecker.
- Black top of head with white feather tips, male with broad red feather tips on crown
- Yellow to deep red or red-brown eyes
- Buff-white lores
- Short white line behind eye
- Dark brown cheeks and ear-coverts with white feather fringes
- Olive brown upperparts, feathers with blackish wedge-shaped centre and pale subterminal spot or bar
- Whitish underparts with distinctive scaly pattern (arrowheads), buffy brownish on belly and lower flanks
Similar species
Entirely scaly underparts, brownish lower belly and upperpart markings distinguish this species from White-bellied Piculet and White-barred Piculet.
Distribution
Coastal lowlands of French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname.
Common in Suriname.
Taxonomy
This is a monotypic species.
The subspecies pallidus of White-bellied Piculet is sometimes included in this species.
Habitat
Secondary forest, mangroves, riverine forest, plantations and up to montane forest.
Behaviour
Feeds on ants and small beetles.
Forages in shrubs and trees like a tit, hanging from small branches and twigs. Hammers on branches.
Breeding season March to December. Excavates a nest-hole high up in a tree. Lays 2-3 eggs.
A resident species.
References
- Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
- Del Hoyo, J, A Elliot, and J Sargatal, eds. 2002. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 7: Jacamars to Woodpeckers. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8487334375
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Arrowhead Piculet. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 4 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Arrowhead_Piculet
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.
