About Picumnus cirratus Temminck, 1825
Scientific name: Picumnus cirratus Temminck, 1825, common name: white-barred piculet. Adults of this species are approximately 10 cm (3.9 in) long, and weigh 6.3 to 12 g (0.22 to 0.42 oz). For adult males of the nominate subspecies P. c. cirratus, the cap is black with a red patch on the forehead and white spots on the remainder of the cap. Their face is mostly dark buff-brown with faint blackish bars, and has a white stripe running behind the eye. Their upperparts are dull brownish, and sometimes have faint darker bars. Their flight feathers are dark brown, with buffish white edges on the secondaries and tertials. Their tail is dark brown; the innermost pair of tail feathers have mostly white inner webs, and the outer two or three pairs have a white patch near the tip. Their chin and throat feathers range from white to pale buff, and have blackish bars. The rest of their underparts are white with black barring, with a buff tinge across the belly and flanks. Their iris is dark chestnut-brown, their orbital ring is blue-gray, their beak is black with a pale base to the mandible, and their legs are gray. Adult females are identical to males in all aspects except that they do not have red on the forehead. Juveniles are duller and darker than adults, have an unspotted crown, more obvious barring on the upperparts, and heavier barring on the underparts. Subspecies P. c. confusus has a darker face than the nominate subspecies, lacks a white line behind the eye, has brown upperparts, and a heavily barred throat. Subspecies P. c. macconnelli is similar to P. c. confusus, but has no barring on its upperparts; its face sometimes has white spots, and the throat and breast have heavier barring than P. c. confusus. Subspecies P. c. thamnophiloides has grayish upperparts and fewer markings on the underparts, except for arrowhead-shaped markings on the flanks. Subspecies P. c. tucumanus has distinctly barred gray-brown upperparts, a buffier throat and breast with more obscure bars than the nominate subspecies, and has less red to no red on the crown. Subspecies P. c. pilcomayensis has grayish upperparts, narrow black and white barring on the underparts, and little to no red on the crown. The white-barred piculet has two widely separated distribution ranges, with each subspecies occupying a distinct area. P. c. macconnelli is found in the eastern Amazon Basin of northeastern Brazil, ranging west to the Rio Tapajós. P. c. confusus is found in southwestern Guyana, French Guiana, and Roraima state in extreme northern Brazil. P. c. cirratus is found in southeastern Brazil, from south of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo south to eastern Paraguay. P. c. pilcomayensis ranges from southeastern Bolivia and Paraguay into northeastern Argentina, and is also found in Uruguay. P. c. tucumanus is found in northwestern Argentina. P. c. thamnophiloides ranges from southeastern Bolivia to northwestern Argentina. This species inhabits a wide variety of landscapes including wet and dry woodland, forest edges, thickets, gallery forest in savannah, scrub, bamboo clumps, várzea, and overgrown parks and gardens. It occurs across an elevational range from near sea level to about 2,100 m (6,900 ft).
