Woodpeckers and relatives
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 240 specimens of woodpeckers and their relatives. These date from 1874 to 1994.
This collection includes skins and mounts of 147 woodpeckers (representing 47 species), 54 barbets (representing 15 species), 13 wrynecks, 10 toucans, seven jacamars, four puffbirds, two piculets and two honeyguides. There are also a few skeletal specimens, a small number of eggs and one nest of a green woodpecker. Among these specimens are many Scottish examples, in addition to others from England, Ethiopia, Malawi, Ghana, India, Borneo, Malaysia, Tibet, the USA, Canada and Suriname.
About woodpeckers
Woodpeckers belong to a large group of about 400 tree-living bird species, called the Piciformes. This group also includes wrynecks and piculets (Picidae), jacamars (Galbulidae), puffbirds (Bucconidae), barbets (Capitonidae, Lybiidae, Megalaimidae), toucans (Ramphastidae) and honeyguides (Indicatoridae). Most Piciformes have two toes pointing backwards and two forwards. This is a great advantage to them as they spend much of their time climbing trees. They feed mainly on insects, although barbets and toucans feed on fruit. The honeyguides mainly feed on insects and are the only birds able to digest beeswax. - Broader term
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