Yungipicus is a genus of woodpeckers in the family Picidae native to Asia. The species in this genus were previously placed in the genus Dendrocopos.
Taxonomy A molecular phylogenetic analysis of the pied woodpeckers published in 2015 found that the genus Dendrocopos was polyphyletic. In the subsequent rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, seven species were moved to the resurrected genus Yungipicus. The genus had been introduced by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1854. The name combines the Ancient Greek iunx meaning wryneck which was used by Carl Linnaeus for his genus Jynx, with the Latin picus meaning "woodpecker". The type species was designated by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1855 as a subspecies of the brown-capped pygmy woodpecker, Yungipicus nanus hardwickii. The genus is in the tribe Melanerpini, one of five tribes that make up the woodpecker subfamily Picinae. The genus Yungipicus is sister to the genus Picoides.
The genus includes seven species: Image Common name Scientific name Distribution Sulawesi pygmy woodpecker Yungipicus temminckii Sulawesi in Indonesia Brown-capped pygmy woodpecker Yungipicus nanus Nepal, India and Sri Lanka. Grey-capped pygmy woodpecker Yungipicus canicapillusNortheast India, Manchuria, eastern Siberia, and Korea. Philippine pygmy woodpecker Yungipicus maculatusPhilippines. Sulu pygmy woodpeckerYungipicus ramsayiPhilippines. Sunda pygmy woodpecker Yungipicus moluccensisBrunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Japanese pygmy woodpecker Yungipicus kizuki Russia, China, Korea and Japan.
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