Field guide · 5 birds
Woodpeckers drum on trees to find insects, carve nest holes and announce their territory. North America's familiar species range from the sparrow-sized downy woodpecker to the crow-sized pileated woodpecker.
Bill length, size and the pattern of red on the head are the field marks that separate them — the downy and hairy woodpeckers are the classic look-alike pair.
| Bird | Group | Colors | Habitat | Region | Length | Wingspan | Diet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downy Woodpecker | Woodpeckers | Black, White, Red | Backyards | Nationwide | 6 in | 11 in | Insects |
| Hairy Woodpecker | Woodpeckers | Black, White, Red | Forest | Nationwide | 9 in | 15 in | Insects |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | Woodpeckers | Black, White, Red | Backyards | Eastern | 9 in | 15 in | Omnivore |
| Northern Flicker | Woodpeckers | Brown, Black | Backyards | Nationwide | 12 in | 18 in | Insects |
| Pileated Woodpecker | Woodpeckers | Black, White, Red | Forest | Eastern | 18 in | 28 in | Insects |
The downy woodpecker is the smallest woodpecker in North America and, for most people, the first one they ever identify: a sparrow-sized black-and-white bird clinging to a suet cage or tapping along a backyard maple. It lives year-round across most of the continent, joins winter flocks of chickadees and nuthatches, and turns up in city parks as readily as in deep woods.
Read the full guide →The hairy woodpecker is the downy's bigger, louder double: a robin-sized black-and-white woodpecker of mature forest whose range runs from Alaska to the mountains of Panama. Telling it from the downy is one of the classic puzzles of backyard birding, and its presence in a woodlot is a good sign of big trees and standing dead wood.
Read the full guide →The red-bellied woodpecker is the loud, zebra-backed woodpecker of Eastern yards and river woods, as at home on a suet feeder as in a river-bottom swamp. Its name trips up nearly everyone, because the obvious red is on the head and the belly shows only a faint rosy blush. Over recent decades it has pushed steadily north, and it is now a familiar bird in places where it was once a rarity.
Read the full guide →The northern flicker is a big brown woodpecker that spends much of its day on the ground, digging into anthills on lawns and pastures. When it flushes, a bright white rump and a flash of golden-yellow or salmon-red under the wings make it one of the most striking birds on the continent, and unlike most woodpeckers it is a true migrant in the North. Alabama, the Yellowhammer State, made the flicker its state bird.
Read the full guide →The pileated woodpecker is the giant of North American woodpeckers: a crow-sized black bird with a flaming red crest and a wild, ringing call that carries through mature forest. Its big, roughly rectangular excavations in dead trees are often the first sign one lives nearby, and the nest holes it abandons go on to shelter owls, tree-nesting ducks and other forest animals.
Read the full guide →Think you could name them from a few clues? A new mystery bird drops every day.
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