Critically Endangered
Imperial Woodpecker
Campephilus imperialis
The Imperial woodpecker is a woodpecker species endemic to Mexico.
The bird
Measuring approximately 56–60 cm (22–23.5 in) in length, it is the largest known woodpecker.
It is likely that, in the past, the woodpecker's range followed the Sierra Madre north into Arizona, but by the time it was scientifically described in the 19th century, it was already confined to Mexico.
Range and habitat
The Imperial woodpecker is a woodpecker species endemic to Mexico. The species is generally considered extinct, although the possibility that a small number of individuals survive in remote areas of its former range has not been completely ruled out.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
Imperial Woodpecker is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Imperial Woodpecker, Wikidata item Q852622. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
