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''Colaptes'' is the genus of woodpeckers which contains the flickers. The scientific name means "the pecker", Latinized from the Greek verb ''kolápto'' (κολάπτω), "to peck". One well-known member of this genus is the Northern flicker (''Colaptes auratus''), a subspecies of which is known in parts of the southern U.S. as the "Yellowhammer". It is the state bird of Alabama, and the state's nickname is the "Yellowhammer State". ''Colaptes'' woodpeckers typically have a brown or green back and wings with black barring, and a beige to yellowish underside, with black spotting or barring. There are usually colorful markings on the head. Many of these birds – particularly the northerly species – are more terrestrial than usual among woodpeckers. ==Systematics and evolution== The genus ''Colaptes'' belongs to the diverse tribe Picini, which is included in the Malarpicini by some authors. Regardless, their tribe contains mostly mid-sized and often rather terrestrial woodpeckers with typically greenish or brownish wings, but also some large and dark forms e.g. in the genus ''Dryocopus''. The rather closely related genus ''Picus'' can be considered the Old World ecomorphological equivalent of ''Colaptes''; it is the type genus of the tribe Picini (if valid), the true woodpecker subfamily (Picinae), the family of woodpeckers and relatives (Picidae), as well as the suborder (Pici) and entire order (Piciformes) of increasingly more distant woodpecker relatives up to and including the puffbirds (Galbulidae). ''Picus'' is not as closely related to the flickers as is the genus ''Piculus'', however, which have a more conventional lifestyle and forage on the ground less often.〔 ''Colaptes'' can be divided into two groups: The typical flickers (subgenus ''Colaptes'') are slender and more terrestrial species with usually solid-colored tops of the heads. They occur all over the Americas except in polar regions. The forest flickers (subgenus ''Chrysoptilus'') are more arboreal species; almost all of them have a red nape and a different-colored crown. They are found in South America; a group of three species formerly placed in ''Piculus'' ranges via the mesoamerican Cordillera north to Mexico.〔 The genus probably evolved a few million years ago, around the Miocene/Pliocene boundary or somewhat earlier. The fossil specimen DMNH 1262 from the Early Pliocene (about five million years ago), found near Ainsworth, Nebraska (USA), is a right ulna which is almost complete, with only the tips damaged. It seems to be either from a basal ''Colaptes'' or a genus of Picini (or Malarpicini) closely related to it, and resembles the ulna of forest flickers more than that of the typical flickers, suggesting that it was from a bird not as terrestrial as the modern-day subgenus ''Colaptes''.〔 An undescribed Pleistocene fossil flicker from the Bahamas belongs to the subgenus ''Colaptes'' judging from biogeography; it was probably close to ''C. fernandinae'', perhaps to ''C. aureus''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Colaptes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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