Chloropicus Explained

Chloropicus is a genus of birds in the woodpecker family Picidae that are native to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Taxonomy

The genus was introduced by the French ornithologist Alfred Malherbe in 1845 with the fire-bellied woodpecker (Chloropicus pyrrhogaster) as the type species.^[1] The word Chloropicus is from the Greek khlōros meaning green and pikos meaning woodpecker.^[2] Molecular genetic studies have shown that the genus Chloropicus is sister to the genus Dendropicos.^{[3] [4]} Species in this genus were previously sometimes assigned to Dendropicos.^{[5] [6]}

The genus contains the three species:^[6]

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Chloropicus namaquus		Angola, Botswana, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
	Chloropicus xantholophus		Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
	Chloropicus pyrrhogaster	Fire-bellied woodpecker	Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo and western Cameroon

Notes and References

1. Malherbe . Alfred . Alfred Malherbe . 1845 . Description de dix espéces nouvelles du genre Picus, Linné . Revue Zoologique par la Société Cuvierienne . 8 . 399 . fr, la .
2. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 103.
3. Shakya . S.B. . Fuchs . J. . Pons . J.-M. . Sheldon . F.H. . 2017 . Tapping the woodpecker tree for evolutionary insight . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 116 . 182–191 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2017.09.005 . 28890006 . free .
4. Fuchs . J. . Pons . J.-M. . Bowie . R.C.K. . 2017 . Biogeography and diversification dynamics of the African woodpeckers . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 108 . 88–100 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2017.01.007 . 28089840 . free .
5. Fuchs . J. . Pons . J.M. . 2015 . A new classification of the pied woodpeckers assemblage (Dendropicini, Picidae) based on a comprehensive multi-locus phylogeny . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 88 . 28–37 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2015.03.016 . 25818851.
6. Web site: Gill . Frank . Donsker . David . Woodpeckers . World Bird List Version 6.2 . International Ornithologists' Union. 5 May 2016 .