Nearctica - Natural History - Birds of Eastern North America - Picidae

Woodpeckers, Flickers, and Sapsuckers

(Picidae)

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A Field Guide to Eastern Birds. by Roger Tory Peterson.

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Woodpeckers are usually easily identified birds. These birds have strong, chisel-like bills that most use for drilling into tree trunks and tree limbs searching for woodboring insects. A few species feed on tree sap in part, and the flickers feed on insects on the ground. The tail is usually stiff and used to support the bird on the tree trunk. There are 215 species worldwide and 22 species breed in North America.

Pileated Woodpecker - The largest eastern woodpecker with a large, red, triangular tuft of feathers from the rear or the crown of the head.	Northern Flicker - Head with a black mustache below the eye and a black bib at the base of the neck. Breast spotted.

Red-headed Woodpecker - Head all red, rest of body in a simple black and white pattern	Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - Red patches on throat and crown of head. Wing with a broad, white stripe.

Red-bellied Woodpecker - Crown and brack of head (males) or just back of neck (females) red. Breast, belly, and sied of head buff brown.

Back (ignoring the wings) with a ladderlike pattern of black and white stripes.
Red-cockaded Woodpecker - Side of head almost all white except around the eye. Male without a yellow patch on the crown of the head. White spotting covers all of the wing.	Three-toed Woodpecker - Side of head dominated by a ovate black patch. Male (but not female) with a yellow patch on the crown of the head. White spotting covers only the apex of the wing.

Back (ignoring the wings) without a ladderlike pattern of black and white stripes.
Back white
Hairy Woodpecker - Larger, 9 inches from tip of bill to tip of tail; bill long and narrow	Downy Woodpecker - Smaller, 6 inches from tip of bill to tip of tail; bill short and stubby.

Back black - Black-backed Woodpecker