Critically Endangered Woodpeckers

Woodpeckers belong to the order Piciformes that comprises nine families of largely arboreal birds. Though largely insectivorous, some species eat fruits and the honeyguides are unique in the bird world as they are able to digest beeswax. These birds generally live in the wild and in forested areas. These places may be far from human civilization, but somehow, man’s ways have extensive reach, enough to endanger some of them.

The International Union for Conservative Nature or IUCN has listed four birds under the order Piciformes which are classified as Critically Endangered. This means that they face the greatest risk of extinction. Here the four species of woodpeckers identified as Critically Endangered:

Imperial Woodpecker

 

If not extinct, the Imperial Woodpecker is the world’s largest woodpecker species at 56-60 cm (22-24 in) long. The bird is found in Mexico where it is known in many names like cuauhtotomomi, uagam, and cumecocari. The male is largely black, except for its white-tipped inner primaries. It also has a red-sided crust. The female is similar in appearance to the male, except for its crest that is black and recurved at the top. The bird feeds mainly by scaling bark from dead pine trees and feeding on the insect larvae found underneath.

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