Day 53: Red-bellied Woodpecker

The Red-bellied Woodpecker is another woodpecker that we commonly see in our backyard and around Maryland. It's larger than the Downy and the Hairy Woodpeckers that I wrote about previously and can be found in the eastern U.S. and Canada (and as far west as Texas).

 

When I was first learning my bird names, I always got mixed up with the Red-bellied Woodpecker. The first thing you notice when you see the bird is its bright red head, so I kept wanting to call it the Red-headed Woodpecker. There is actually a bird called a Red-headed Woodpecker, however, and it's not the same thing! Confusing, right?

Turns out, the Red-bellied Woodpecker actually does have some red on its belly, if you look closely (you can barely see it in some of the photos). According to Wikipedia, though "The reddish tinge on the belly that gives the bird its name is difficult to see in field identification." Ha! So, I'm not the only one who has difficulty with that, evidently. Adults have a black and white barred pattern on their back and wings. I didn't realize there was a difference between males and females, but evidently males have a red head that extends from the bill to the nape, and females have only a red patch on the nape and another above the bill. It looks like the one I photographed above is a male.