Woodpeckers (Picidae)

Olivaceous Piculet (Picumnus olivaceus) - HBW 7, p. 434

French: Picumne olivâtre German: Olivrücken-Zwergspecht Spanish: Carpinterito Oliváceo

Taxonomy: Picumnus olivaceus Lafresnaye, 1845, Bogotá, Colombia.
Forms a superspecies with P. granadensis, and possibly conspecific. Proposed race panamensis (E Panama to extreme NW Colombia) considered insufficiently distinct from flavotinctus, and malleolus (N Colombia from N Sucre S to upper R Sinú and S Bolivár) not distinguishable from nominate. In past, race eisenmanni was referred to as race “perijanus”, but this name is preoccupied by a race of P. cinnamomeus. Six subspecies currently recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

dimotus Bangs, 1903 - E Guatemala, N Honduras and E Nicaragua.
flavotinctus Ridgway, 1889 - Costa Rica, Panama and extreme NW Colombia (N Chocó).
eisenmanni Phelps, Jr. & Aveledo, 1966 - Sierra de Perijá in extreme NW Venezuela, possibly also in adjacent N Colombia.

See all 6 subspecies

dimotus Bangs, 1903 - E Guatemala, N Honduras and E Nicaragua.
flavotinctus Ridgway, 1889 - Costa Rica, Panama and extreme NW Colombia (N Chocó).
eisenmanni Phelps, Jr. & Aveledo, 1966 - Sierra de Perijá in extreme NW Venezuela, possibly also in adjacent N Colombia.
olivaceus Lafresnaye, 1845 - W Colombia from N Sucre (Serranía de San Jacinto) S to upper R Sinú and S Bolívar, S in C Andes to lower Cauca Valley and in E Andes to Huila.
tachirensis Phelps, Sr. & Gilliard, 1941 - E slope of E Andes in NC Colombia (Norte de Santander) and adjacent SW Venezuela (SW Táchira).
harterti Hellmayr, 1909 - SW Colombia (SW Nariño) and W Ecuador; recently recorded in NW Peru (Tumbes).