Extensive group mainly small and medium-size birds that are mostly arboreal lifestyle. Based on the anatomical characteristics in fowl combined unit, quite diverse in appearance and way of life. Of the five families, which is divided squad, the most richly presented in the tropics, in Russia are representatives of only one:

Family Woodpecker Picidae

Plumage short, tough, with many species of brightly colored. Steering feathers of the majority of species Woodpecker rigid backbone and serve with climbing on the trunks of trees (except in the fauna of Russia - Vertisheyka Jynx torquilla Linnaeus, 1758, with its soft feathers steering). Beak of the majority of species Woodpecker massive, well-adapted for Chiseling wood as the excavation great snipe, officials nesting sites, and in the extraction of insects, hidden under the bark or wood, some dyatly feed and seeds of conifers, razdalblivaya cones of pine and spruce. Language long, sticky, adapted to extract insects from the narrow tunnels in wood and under bark or to collect ants on the ground. Legs are well adapted to climbing trees: two fingers directed forward and two back (sometimes only one rear finger), one of the rear agile fingers, he can pivot sideways and create additional support is particularly important when Chiseling. Flight quite fast straight, little maneuver. Slot in the hollows (Shtegman, Ivanov, 1978).

In addition to the species listed in the list of fauna Russia are:

Green Woodpecker Picus viridis L., 1758
Syrian woodpecker Dendrocopos syriacus Hemprich et Ehrenberg, 1833
The average woodpecker Dendrocopos medius L., 1758
Ryzhebryuhy woodpecker Dendrocopos hyperythrus Vigors, 1831
Ostrokryly woodpecker Dendrocopos canicapillus Blyth, 1845
Pygmy Woodpecker Dendrocopos kizuki Temminck, 1835

References.