Where to See & Photograph the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Subspecies of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Dryobates minor kamtschatkensisDryobates minor colchicusDryobates minor ledouciDryobates minor minorDryobates minor amurensisBritish Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

The lesser spotted woodpecker (Dryobates minor) is a member of the woodpecker family Picidae. It was formerly assigned to the genus Dendrocopos (sometimes incorrectly spelt as Dendrocopus). Some taxonomic authorities continue to list the species there. The range of the lesser spotted woodpecker is the Palearctic region, but several subspecies are recognised. == Taxonomy == The lesser spotted woodpecker was listed by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Picus minor. Linnaeus specified the locality as Europe but this is now restricted to Sweden. The species was moved to the genus Dendrocopos by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch in 1816. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2015 based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences found that the species placed in the genus Dendrocopos did not form a monophyletic group. In the revised generic classification, the lesser spotted woodpecker was placed in the resurrected genus Dryobates, that had originally been introduced by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie in 1826. The genus name Dryobates is from the Ancient Greek druos meaning woodland and batēs meaning walker. The specific minor is Latin for "smaller". There are 13 recognised subspecies: D.…