PICUS

PICUS: The Woodpecker Seer and father of FAUNUS.

Son of SATURNUS, he became a King of Latium and was known for delivering oracles with the aid of a woodpecker. CIRCE the Greek enchantress fancied him, but he spurned her advances so she changed him into a woodpecker.

This made the peasants like him even more and he became an agricultural deity. He is particularly good at forecasting rain.

As to his fatherhood of FAUNUS, we can only presume that this event happened before his woodpecker transformation.