Proposal (793) to South American Classification Committee

Change English name of Celeus ochraceus

When we passed the proposal to recognize Celeus ochraceus as a separate species from C. flavescens, we failed to do a separate proposal for the English name and simply went with “Ochraceous Woodpecker”. Del Hoyo & Collar (2014) had already treated ochraceus as a separate species based on the same data (Benz & Robbins 2011) and had used “Ochre-backed Woodpecker”.

Tom Schulenberg pointed out to me that we did not adequately consider the English name issue, that Ochre-backed is a much better name (see illustrations and photos, e.g. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/90508351#_ga=2.69460376.922747742.1528825737-1150616374.1458581505), and that HBW and Gill-Donsker both adopted Ochre-backed. Therefore, I strongly recommend we follow suit.

Van Remsen, June 2018

Comments from Stotz: “YES. Ochre-backed seems more appropriate than Ochraceous as a descriptor.”

Comments from Stiles: “YES. Ochre-backed is the better name and is already in use.”

Comments from Jaramillo: “YES – better name, and follows a precedence of use.”