Picides is an infraorder of the order Piciformes that includes

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family (biology), family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme ...

s and

honeyguide Honeyguides (family (biology), family Indicatoridae) are a family of birds in the order Piciformes. They are also known as indicator birds, or honey birds, although the latter term is also used more narrowly to refer to species of the genus ''Pro ...

s. The honeyguides were thought to be closely related to the barbets, as their aerial displays and vocalizations are more similar to each other than either are to woodpeckers. However, phylogenetic analysis has shown that honeyguides and woodpeckers are indeed sister taxa.Moyle, R. G. (2004). Phylogenetics of barbets (Aves: Piciformes) based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 30(1), 187-200.

Systematics

Despite having only two families, Picides is an extremely widespread group; the family Picidae is the largest and most widespread in the order Piciformes, containing over 200 species in three subfamilies and being found on all continents except Australia and Antarctica. *Infraorder Picides **Family Indicatoridae (honeyguides) **Family Picidae ***Subfamily Jynginae (wrynecks) ***Subfamily

Picumninae The piculets are a distinctive subfamily, Picumninae, of small woodpeckers which occur mainly in tropical South America, with just three Asian and one African piculet, African species. Like the true woodpeckers, piculets have large heads, long t ...

(piculets) ***Subfamily Picinae (woodpeckers)

References

External links

Tree of Life Piciformes
{{Taxonbar, from=Q20817930 Pici (taxon)