Q 01/05

Woodpeckers belong to which bird family?

A) Corvidae

B) Picidae

C) Sittidae

D) Ramphastidae

Answer · why

B) Picidae

The family also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers; Sittidae are the nuthatches and Ramphastidae the toucans.

Q 02/05

Woodpeckers are found on every inhabited continent except which one?

A) Africa

B) South America

C) Australia

D) Asia

Answer · why

C) Australia

They are also missing from New Guinea, New Zealand and Madagascar, so a whole slice of the Southern Hemisphere has no native woodpecker at all.

Q 03/05

Roughly how many woodpecker species are there worldwide?

A) About 60

B) About 120

C) About 500

D) About 240

Answer · why

D) About 240

They are spread over 35 genera, from thumb-sized piculets to birds the size of a crow.

Q 04/05

Which desert species specialises in living among cacti rather than trees?

A) The pileated

B) The downy

C) The wryneck

D) The Gila

Answer · why

D) The Gila

Gila and gilded flickers carve nest holes in tall saguaros of the Sonoran Desert; the holes later house owls, flycatchers and even bats.

Q 05/05

What is the smallest known woodpecker, at about 7.5 cm long?

A) The bar-breasted piculet

B) The downy woodpecker

C) The lesser spotted woodpecker

D) The Eurasian wryneck

Answer · why

A) The bar-breasted piculet

The piculets are tiny tropical woodpeckers; this one weighs under 9 grams, lighter than two US quarters.