An Incredible Tricolored Suit Makes This Bird Gorgeous - Meet The Red-Headed Woodpecker

The Red-headed Woodpecker is a small bird that enchants with its beauty.

Filip

• Published in Animal Stories
• February 28, 2022

There is something mysterious about woodpecker birds that we cannot explain. Every time we hear its knocking, something makes us stop, look up and try to spot it.

While we try to find out where its knocking is coming from, we have so many questions in our head: what color it is, what is it doing, is it going to stop knocking, or it had just started... Oh, their knocking is so fascinating, like a melody we can't get enough of and the mystery we have to solve.

They are part of the family Picidae, which counts around 240 species distributed in 35 genera. There are so many of them out there, and it seems like each one is different from the other.

This magnificent one is called the Red-headed Woodpecker, and when you see its picture, you'll get where its name comes from. It is a real beauty among its kind.

Its cheerful, clearly-limited colors of feathers make a real gentleman out of it. The tricolored suit consists of red, black, and white colors.

It has a characteristic appearance with a striking crimson head and neck, black back and wings, and white underparts. It is easily noticeable even though people often confuse it with the red-bellied woodpecker, who has the bright orange crown and the back part of the neck.

Therefore just look at the colors, for the Red-headed Woodpecker is distinctly crimson totally above its shoulders. It's one of the rare woodpeckers with a colored head in dark red entirely.

Take a look at the photos of this gorgeous Red-headed Woodpecker, and let us know if you've ever seen it before.

Meet the Red-headed Woodpecker

“The red-headed woodpecker has very distinctive, large color patches with no variegating, striation, or striping,” says Emma Greig - project leader at Project FeederWatch.

Males and females have the same colorful plumages, and newborns have alike markings, but they are brown, black, and white.

The Red-headed Woodpecker is a medium-sized bird.

Both sexes, male and female, have a length of 19 to 25 cm (7.5 to 9.8 in). Their weight is about 56 to 97 g (2.0 to 3.4 oz), and the average is 76 g (2.7 oz).

A wing length is 12.7–15 cm, and their wingspread is 42.5 cm (16.7 in). The tail length is 6.6–8.5 cm (2.6–3.3 in), the bill is 2.1–3 cm (0.83–1.18 in), and the tarsus is 1.9–2.5 cm (0.75–0.98 in).

Their longevity is a maximum of 9.9 years.

These birds are omnivorous, they can feed on plant and animal matter.

They eat insects, fruits, seeds, nuts, berries, and even small rodents and other birds' eggs. Their favorite food is beechnuts, acorns, pecans, and fruits like pears, apples, mulberries, grapes, etc.

Around two-thirds of their nutrition consists of plants.

Northern birds start to migrate in late October further south during winter, and they are coming back in the breeding season, which begins at the end of April.

They are not considered endangered species.

Its habitat is North America.

If you want to attract these charming birds to live on your property, you could achieve that by leaving them dead trees, planting deciduous woodlands, and don't forget the food. Although they are omnivores, they have their favorites.

Some fruits, acorns, and pecans should be enough for them to fall in love with your parcel.

Filip