Striped Woodpecker

Dryobates lignarius

The striped woodpecker (Veniliornis lignarius) is a woodpecker found in southwestern South America. It occurs northwest- and southwestwards of the range of its sister taxon, the checkered woodpecker, in the Cordillera Patagonica and its foothills, and in another population in the Andes of Bolivia and the adjacent foothills. As the latter is isolated and differs in numerous respects, it is being considered to separate it as V. (lignarius) puncticeps.

This species was long placed in the genus Picoides where it was, together with its sister species, considered something of an oddball. In 2006, Moore et al. published research on mtDNA COI and Cyt b sequences which suggests that the striped and checkered Woodpeckers are actually most closely related to the white-spotted woodpecker, Veniliornis spilogaster, a peculiar Picoides-like species which also was previously unique in its genus.