Red-headed Woodpecker

The Red-headed Woodpecker is one of the most visually striking woodpeckers in North America, instantly recognizable by its entirely solid crimson-red head and neck contrasting sharply with a jet-black back and pure white body and wing patches. Unlike many other North American woodpeckers, males and females look identical.

Juveniles lack the red head, instead showing a brownish-gray head and streaked underparts, gradually molting into adult plumage over their first year. In flight, large white wing patches flash conspicuously against the black flight feathers.

Once common and widespread, this species has experienced significant population declines over recent decades linked to loss of dead standing timber, competition for nest cavities, and changes in agricultural land use, making it a species of increasing conservation concern.

Key Field Marks

• Entirely solid crimson-red head and neck, sharply demarcated from the body
• Jet-black back and wings with a large, bold white patch on the secondaries
• Pure white underparts and rump
• Sexes look alike; juveniles show a brownish-gray head instead of red

Similar Species

• Red-bellied Woodpecker has only a red cap or nape (not the whole head) and a finely barred black-and-white back rather than solid black, easily separated by pattern.
• Red-breasted Sapsucker (western, non-overlapping in most of range) shows red confined more to the head/breast with barred wings, distinct from the Red-headed's bold, solid pattern.

Red-headed Woodpeckers occur across the eastern and central United States, favoring open woodlands, oak savannas, groves of dead or dying trees, orchards, and wetland edges with standing dead timber. They are notably patchy and local in distribution, often tied closely to specific stands of suitable dead wood.

Northern populations are partially migratory, moving south in years of poor mast (acorn/nut) crops, while southern populations tend to be more resident.

Behavior

Red-headed Woodpeckers are active, acrobatic foragers, catching flying insects in midair as well as foraging on trunks and the ground, and are notably territorial and aggressive toward other cavity-nesting birds.

Voice

The call is a harsh, loud "queeah" or "tchur-tchur," and both sexes drum on resonant wood to signal territory.

Feeding

Diet includes insects caught both on the wing and gleaned from bark, along with nuts, seeds, and fruit; this species is notable for caching acorns and other food items in bark crevices and knotholes for later retrieval, sometimes covering the stored food with bark.

Nesting & Breeding

Both parents excavate a nest cavity in a dead tree or dead limb, laying 4-7 eggs. The species faces intense competition for nest cavities from European Starlings and other cavity nesters, a factor contributing to its population decline.