Colaptes is a genus of birds in the woodpecker family Picidae. The 13 extant species are found across the Americas.
Colaptes woodpeckers typically have a brown or green back and wings with black barring, and a beige to yellowish underside, with black spotting or barring. There are usually colorful markings on the head. Many of these birds – particularly the northern species – are more terrestrial than usual among woodpeckers.
Historically, there has been considerable uncertainty in assigning woodpecker species to genera and it is only by comparing DNA sequences that it has become possible to confidently place many of the species.
Taxonomy: The genus
Colaptes was introduced by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1825 with the northern flicker (
Colaptes auratus) as the type species. The genus name is from Ancient Greek (), meaning .
The genus forms part of the woodpecker subfamily Picinae and has a sister relationship to the genus
Piculus. The genus
Colaptes is a member of the tribe Picini and belongs to a clade that contains five genera:
Colaptes,
Piculus,
Mulleripicus,
Dryocopus and
Celeus. Some of the relationships between the species within
Colaptes are uncertain, with various genetic studies reporting slightly different phylogenies, but it is evident that those species with "flicker" in their common name do not form a monophyletic group.
The genus
Colaptes contains 14 species. Of these, one, the Bermuda flicker, is now extinct:
| Image | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|
| 120px]] | Golden-olive woodpecker | Colaptes rubiginosus | east to Guyana, northwestern Argentina, and Trinidad and Tobago |
| 120px]] | Grey-crowned woodpecker | Colaptes auricularis | Mexico |
| 120px]] | Crimson-mantled woodpecker | Colaptes rivolii | Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela |
| 120px]] | Black-necked woodpecker | Colaptes atricollis | Peru |
| 120px]] | Spot-breasted woodpecker | Colaptes punctigula | Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela; also in eastern Panama |
| 120px]] | Green-barred woodpecker | Colaptes melanochloros | Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay |
| 120px]] | Northern flicker | Colaptes auratus | North America, Cuba and Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands |
| 120px]] | Gilded flicker | Colaptes chrysoides | the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico |
| 120px]] | Guatemalan flicker | Colaptes mexicanoides | southern Mexico to Nicaragua |
| 120px]] | Fernandina´s flicker | Colaptes fernandinae | Cuba |
| 120px]] | Chilean flicker | Colaptes pitius | Argentina and Chile |
| 120px]] | Andean flicker | Colaptes rupicola | Peru, Chile, eastern Bolivia and northeastern Argentina |
| 120px]] | Campo flicker | Colaptes campestris | Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and northeastern Argentina, Suriname |
- † Bermuda flicker (Colaptes oceanicus) - extinct, but may have survived into historical times - formerly Bermuda