A fact from Woodpecker appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 18 August 2017 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that the woodpecker has special adaptations to avoid damaging its brain while pecking and drumming?
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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment[edit]
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 12 August 2020 and 25 November 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Zyv2.
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
I propose moving this page to woodpecker for the following reasons.
The family page is more important than the subfamily page.
The term woodpecker can be used to describe the whole family as well as specifically the subfamily.
Woodpecker gets higher levels of traffic than Picidae.
The throughout the text the group would be referred to as woodpeckers and piculets, if that is preferred. The idea of the move is not to suggest the whole family are woodpeckers, if people feel that they are not (personally I think of them as such, but we'll see what other people think). The idea is simply to have the article title on the name that gets the biggest number of hits (802 a day as opposed to 35). As an incentive, if this is approved, I will push the article to Good Article Status within a month of the move. Scouts honour. Sabine's Sunbirdtalk01:49, 6 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Having a fair deal of Neotropical experiance, everybody in that part of the world, regardless of background (random birders to pro ornithologists), consider and speak about piculets as "just small woodpeckers" (and the vast majority of piculets are, after all, Neotropical). A comparably situation applies to wrynecks (at least in Europe). So, I'd also feel fine about just referring to them all as woodpeckers; no need for "woodpeckers and piculets" or alike throughout the text (except in cases where descriptions specifically refer to some - but not all - of the subfamilies). • Rabo³ • 10:47, 6 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Support I'm sure it's where they started. The wrynecks are a minor stumbling block because they are normally called just that, but they are woodpeckers, and it makes sense to have the family where you would expect it jimfbleak (talk) 15:16, 6 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
File:Ivory Billed Woodpecker.jpg Nominated for Deletion[edit]
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The recent edits on other pages moving several Picoides species to other genera has led to some orphaned genera. Example: the Red-cockaded woodpecker was recently edited changing its genus to Leuconotopicus, which is not mentioned on this page as a genus within Picidae. I don't know enough about the current state of bird taxonomy to know whether to add Leuconotopicus to this page, or to revert the other changes to species pages. May be in need of an expert eye to untangle. Chanther (talk) 16:47, 27 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I have acquired the 2014 book Woodpeckers of the World: A Photographic Guide by Gerard Gorman with a view to working on this article and taking it to GA. The book has a twenty page introductory section with a lot of general information on the family. If anyone else would like to join me, they are welcome to do so. I am also expanding some of the species stubs. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 11:29, 25 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
A pre-GAN comment (not sure if I will get to review it), but it seems a bit strange that the ivory billed woodpecker is mentioned several times throughout the article, but not in the status section, where it may be most relevant. I think you could list extinct and threatened species there. The last paragraph under "Habitat requirements" seems misplaced (says nothing about habitats), and could probably be moved to the status section. FunkMonk (talk) 03:02, 11 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for the comment. I have moved the paragraph you suggested and will see what I can find on extinct and endangered species. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 13:10, 11 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The caption is way too long for the image in the General characteristics section, pick one topic to briefly glance over in the caption, and let the article do most of the explaining User:Dunkleosteus77 |push to talk05:55, 24 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
You keep switching from singular to plural, like with, "The largest surviving species is the great slaty woodpecker..." and right next to it, "the probably extinct imperial woodpeckers," be consistent where you can User:Dunkleosteus77 |push to talk05:55, 24 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Basic rule of thumb for commas and adjectives, if you can't switch them, use a comma (like, "... have short strong legs," should be, "... have short, strong legs") I fixed that last one by the way User:Dunkleosteus77 |push to talk05:55, 24 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
You seem to be wikilinking things in the lead and then not in the rest of the article. If you wikilink something in the lead, you still have to wikilink the first mention of it in the rest of the article User:Dunkleosteus77 |push to talk05:55, 24 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for taking on this review. I think I have dealt with all the points you raised, and I agree that the article was grossly overlinked. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 19:59, 24 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
In the further reading section, the link for "A phylogenetic analysis of woodpeckers and their allies using 12S, Cyt b, and COI nucleotide sequences (class Aves; order Piciformes)" won't open for me (but that just might be by crap wifi) User:Dunkleosteus77 |push to talk22:16, 24 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
you wikilinked bill twice and wryneck on the second mention in the General characteristics section
Done these apart from the list of genera. That predated my involvement with the article, and if you think it is important, I shall have to make enquiry at the Birds Project page. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 19:41, 25 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I asked at the Bird Project page and Shyamal has added some references for the "List of Genera" section. Are you happy with that? Cwmhiraeth (talk) 18:24, 28 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I just saw a CT scan[1] of a woodpecker showing the insane tongue bones wrapping around the skull and going into the right nostril. I think this feature is notable enough to show, perhaps use one of these[2][3] images in the lower right of the characteristics section? Also could be good to note the asymmetry (only entering the right nostril), if that is a general thing. FunkMonk (talk) 08:04, 5 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Woodpeckers are a group of birds in the 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 polar regions. Most species live in forests or woodland habitats, although a few species are known that live in treeless areas, such as rocky hillsides and deserts, and the Gila woodpecker specialises in exploiting cacti. This photograph shows a female campo flicker (Colaptes campestris), a woodpecker species native to South America, in the Pantanal, Brazil.