Red-bellied Woodpecker

The Red-bellied Woodpecker is a common and adaptable woodpecker of eastern and central North America, often seen and heard in woodlands and suburban yards alike. Despite its name, the faint reddish wash on its belly is rarely obvious in the field; the bold red on its head is far more conspicuous.

Its back and wings show a fine, evenly barred black-and-white "ladder" pattern unlike the bolder checkering of many other woodpeckers, making it distinctive when its feathers are examined closely.

The extent of red on the head differs between the sexes, with males showing a full red cap from bill to nape and females showing red restricted to the nape.

Size and Shape

Medium-length, sturdy flight and back feathers typical of a mid-sized woodpecker.

Color and Pattern

• Back and wing feathers show fine, even black-and-white barring in a ladder-like pattern, distinct from bolder checkering seen in other species.
• Underside feathers are pale grayish-buff, occasionally with a faint reddish tinge near the belly.
• Head feathers are red, with the extent differing by sex.

Comparisons

The fine ladder-barred back pattern separates this species from the Red-headed Woodpecker, which has a solid black back with no barring, and from the Northern Flicker, whose back barring is coarser and brownish rather than crisp black-and-white.

Males show red extending from the bill over the crown to the nape; females show red only on the nape, with a gray crown. Juveniles are duller, with little or no red until their first molt. One complete annual molt occurs after breeding.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are resident year-round across the eastern and central United States, in deciduous and mixed woodlands and increasingly in suburban yards, with a range that has been expanding northward in recent decades.

This species is an omnivorous forager, eating insects, nuts, seeds, and fruit, and it caches food in bark crevices for later use. Its call is a rolling, harsh "churr." It excavates nest cavities in dead wood. A finely barred black-and-white feather with a red-tinged crown or nape feather is a good match for this common eastern species.