Choco Woodpecker vs Speckled Hummingbird

Veniliornis chocoensis compared with Adelomyia melanogenys

Key Differences

• Choco Woodpecker is Near Threatened while Speckled Hummingbird is Least Concern.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Choco Woodpecker	Speckled Hummingbird
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum same	Chordata (Chordates)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class same	Aves (Birds)	Aves (Birds)
Order	Piciformes (Piciformes)	Apodiformes (Apodiformes)
Family	Picidae	Trochilidae
Genus	Veniliornis	Adelomyia
Species	Veniliornis chocoensis	Adelomyia melanogenys

Evolutionary Relationship

Choco Woodpecker and Speckled Hummingbird share a common ancestor at the Class level: Aves. (Birds)

Conservation Status

Choco Woodpecker

NT — Near Threatened

Speckled Hummingbird

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Choco Woodpecker	Speckled Hummingbird
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Choco Woodpecker

Habitat

Typically found in various aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Range

Distributed across Colombia and Ecuador. Listed as Near Threatened, this species requires ongoing monitoring to prevent population decline.

Speckled Hummingbird

Habitat

Typically found in various aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Range

Distributed across Colombia, Ecuador, Norway, and Venezuela.

Choco Woodpecker

The Choco Woodpecker (Veniliornis chocoensis) is a small to medium-sized woodpecker in the family Picidae, endemic to the humid lowland and foothill forests of the Chocó biogeographic region on the Pacific slopes of Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. It belongs to the genus Veniliornis, a group of small Neotropical woodpeckers characterised by their compact build, relatively short bills, and often barred or spotted plumage combining greens, browns, and reds. The male Choco Woodpecker has a red cap, while the female's crown is dark. Both sexes show strongly barred underparts. It inhabits the interior and edge of humid tropical forest from sea level to around 1,200 metres, where it excavates nesting and roosting cavities in dead or dying trees and forages for wood-boring beetles, ants, and other invertebrates by pecking, chiselling, and probing bark and dead wood. The IUCN classifies the Choco Woodpecker as Near Threatened. Its dependence on intact and mature forest with sufficient dead wood substrate makes it vulnerable to the rapid, ongoing deforestation occurring in the Colombian and Ecuadorian Pacific lowlands and foothills, where large areas of forest have been converted to agriculture and human settlements over recent decades.

Speckled Hummingbird

A medium-sized hummingbird with speckled or spotted underparts — unusual among hummingbirds dominated by plain or iridescent plumages — speckled hummingbirds inhabit cloud forest and forest edges in the Andes from Colombia and Venezuela south to Bolivia at elevations of 900–3,000 meters. The spotted underpart pattern provides remarkable camouflage when the bird perches on lichen-covered bark. They forage on nectar and small arthropods and are important pollinators of Andean epiphytes.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 2 countries:

🇨🇴 Colombia 🇪🇨 Ecuador