Checkered woodpecker

The checkered woodpecker ("Veniliornis mixtus") is a woodpecker (Family Picidae) found in eastern South America.
Taxonomy.
The checkered woodpecker was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his "Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux" from a specimen collected in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the "Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle" which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name "Picus mixtus" in his catalogue of the "Planches Enluminées". The checkered woodpecker is now placed in the genus "Veniliornis " that was introduced by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1854. The generic name combines the name of the Roman deity Venilia with the Ancient Greek word "ornis" meaning "bird". The specific epithet "mixtus" is the Latin word for "mixed" or "jumbled".
This species was until recently classified in the genus "Picoides". With its sister taxon, the striped woodpecker, it was difficult to place in this genus due to the odd head-pattern and the fine, yet bold body and wing spotting. mtDNA COI and Cyt "b" sequence analyses have shown that their closest relative is rather the white-spotted woodpecker, "Veniliornis spilogaster" which unlike its congeners shares the two "Picoides"' pattern, but is abundistic. This species co-occurs with "V. m. cancellatus" over much of their range. In an apparent case of character displacement, the latter is by far the lightest and least-patterned subspecies.
Four subspecies are recognised:
Subspecific differences run contrary to Gloger's rule. "V. m. malleator" and "V. m. berlepschi", which inhabit arid habitat, have darker and more prominent underside patterning, whereas the other two subspecies which are birds of mesic or riparian woodland are paler overall.
Description.
The bird is about long. Its coloring is black and white, and the male has a red area on the back of its head.
Status and conservation.
It is a widespread species and not considered threatened by the IUCN.>