Bangladesh (B), Bhutan (B), Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia (B), China (mainland) (B), India (B), Indonesia (B), Laos (B), Malaysia (B), Myanmar (B), Nepal (B), North Korea (B), Pakistan (B), Russia (Asian) (B), South Korea (B), Taiwan (China) (B), Thailand (B), Vietnam (B).
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker (Yungipicus canicapillus) [XC705160]
by Bram Piot from Heilongtan Park, Lijiang, Yunnan, China (call)
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker (Yungipicus canicapillus) [XC34273]
by from Dasyeushan Forest Reserve, Taiwan (call, song? calls)
Subspecies
Most closely related to Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker (Picoides kizuki) and sometimes thought to form a superspecies with it, although ranges of the two overlap rather extensively in mainland eastern Asia. More distantly related to Sulawesi Pygmy Woodpecker (Picoides temminckii), Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker (Picoides maculatus) and Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker (Picoides moluccensis). Has at times been considered conspecific with subspecies nanus of Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker (Picoides moluccensis), in which case name nanus has priority. However, the two are sympatric in Nepal without interbreeding. Mainland subspecies intergrade. Taiwan population originally named as a separate species, "Dendrocopos wattersi", but specimen shown to be juvenile of present species. The name subsequently synonymized with kaleensis.
Other named subspecies include szetschuanensis (central China), nagamichii (eastern China), omissus (south-western China), obscurus (south-eastern Yunnan) and tonkinensis (Tonkin), all considered either to represent intergrades between populations or to fall within range of variation of adjacent subspecies.
The following 11 subspecies are recognised:
mitchellii (Malherbe, 1849) - Northern Pakistan east to Nepal.
semicoronatus (Malherbe, 1849) - Extreme eastern Nepal east to western Assam.
canicapillus (Blyth, 1845) - Eastern Assam, Bangladesh, central and southern Myanmar, most of Thailand and Laos.
delacouri (Meyer de Schauensee, 1938) - South-eastern Thailand, Cambodia and Cochinchina.
auritus (Eyton, 1845) - Southern Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia.
volzi (Stresemann, 1920) - Riau Archipelago and Sumatra, including Nias I.
aurantiiventris (Salvadori, 1868) - Borneo.
doerriesi Hargitt, 1881 - Eastern Siberia (Ussuriland), eastern Manchuria and Korea.
scintilliceps (Swinhoe, 1863) - Eastern and central China from Liaoning south to Sichuan and Zhejiang.
kaleensis (Swinhoe, 1863) - Western and southern Sichuan east to Fujian and Taiwan, and south to northern Myanmar and northern Indochina.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet