Gecinulus


Gecinulus is a genus of birds in the woodpecker family Picidae. The species are found in South and Southeast Asia.

Taxonomy

The genus Gecinulus was introduced by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1840 to accommodate the pale-headed woodpecker. The genus name is a diminutive of the genus name Gecinus which had been introduced by the German ornithologist Friedrich Boie in 1831. Gecinus combines the Classical Greek meaning "earth" or "ground" with kineō meaning "to move".
The genus contains three species:
ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Gecinulus rafflesiiOlive-backed woodpeckerMyanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Indonesia
Gecinulus grantiaPale-headed woodpeckerBangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam
Gecinulus viridisBamboo woodpeckerMyanmar, Laos, Thailand and the Malay Peninsula