Red-headed Woodpecker

About the Red-headed Woodpecker

The red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) is a mid-sized woodpecker found in temperate North America. Its breeding habitat is open country across southern Canada and the east-central United States. It is rated as least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Endangered species, having been down-listed from near threatened in 2018. The red-headed woodpecker should not be confused with the red-bellied woodpecker, which is similar in size but has a vibrant orange-red crown and nape; the red-bellied woodpecker is named for the pale reddish blush of its lower belly and has a distinctly patterned black and white back rather than the solid black one of the red-headed woodpecker.

Source: Wikipedia

Classification

Scientific name

Melanerpes erythrocephalus

Family

Woodpeckers

Order

Piciformes

Similar species

Other members of the woodpeckers family recorded in North America — a useful place to start if you are not certain of your identification.

• Acorn Woodpecker Melanerpes formicivorus
• American Three-toed Woodpecker Picoides dorsalis
• Arizona Woodpecker Leuconotopicus arizonae
• Black-backed Woodpecker Picoides arcticus
• Black-cheeked Woodpecker Melanerpes pucherani
• Chestnut-colored Woodpecker Celeus castaneus
• Downy Woodpecker Dryobates pubescens
• Eurasian Wryneck Jynx torquilla
• Gila Woodpecker Melanerpes uropygialis
• Gilded Flicker Colaptes chrysoides
• Golden-cheeked Woodpecker Melanerpes chrysogenys
• Golden-fronted Woodpecker Melanerpes aurifrons