see text Chrysoptilus Nesoceleus Colaptes is a genus of birds in the woodpecker family Picidae.

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.

Many of these birds – particularly the northerly species – are more terrestrial than usual among woodpeckers.

[4] Some of the relationships between the species within Colaptes are uncertain, with various genetic studies reporting slightly different phylogenies, but it is evident that those species with "flicker" in their common name do not form a monophyletic group.

[8] These splits have not been adopted by the online edition of the Clements Checklist of Birds of the World maintained by ornithologists at Cornell University,[9] nor by the American Ornithological Society.