Black-banded Woodcreeper (Dendrocolaptes picumnus) - HBW 8, p. 421

Taxonomy: Dendrocolaptes Picumnus M. H. K. Lichtenstein, 1820, “Cayenne”.
Apparently forms a superspecies with D. hoffmannsi and D. platyrostris, to which closely allied based on vocal and behavioural characters combined with biogeographical patterns. Races form three groups, occurring in distinct biogeographical regions and differing in morphology: “picumnus group”, also including validus and strikingly different transfasciatus (latter sometimes treated as a full species), is primarily Amazonian, but apparently with recent invasion into N Andes and mountains of S Central America (multistrigatus and costaricensis); montane “puncticollis group” (also including seilerni and olivaceus) occurs at fringes of species’ range; “pallescens group” (with casaresi), found in Chaco region, is regarded by some as constituting a separate species. Single record from N Argentina (E Formosa) may be referable to race pallescens. Described race veraguensis (W Panama) considered inseparable from costaricensis and synonymized with it; purported race extimus, known only from type locality (R Alto Paraná, in SE Paraguay), is inseparable from pallescens and described from a series of specimens that were probably mislabelled; larger size upon which race casaresi described not supported by recent study. Has apparently hybridized intergenerically with Hylexetastes stresemanni in W Brazil, one of few cases of possible hybridization in suboscines. Ten subspecies recognized.