THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER 



Woodpecker Family — Picidce 



Length: About 9-)4 inches; nearly as large as a robin. 



General Appearance : A black and white bird with entire head 

 arul neck bright red. 



Male and Female: Head, neck, throat, and upper part of the 

 breast brilliant red; upper part of back and wings 

 black; longer wing-feathers or primaries also black; 

 lower back and secondary wing-feathers white; un- 

 der parts white; tail pointed, black, margined with 

 white. In flight, the areas of red, black, and white 

 are very distinct. 



Young: Brown heads and necks, mottled with black; upper 

 parts of backs barred with light brown. The other 

 parts of their bodies resemble those of their parents. 



Note: No song, but a loud, cheerful Quir-r-r-k? Quir-r-r-k? 

 and a drumming sound, similar to that made by 

 other woodpeckers. 



Habitat: Open woods, groves of beeches preferred. 



Nest: In hollow tree-trunks or telegraph-poles. 



Range: From southeastern British Columbia, to Ontario, south 

 to the Gulf Coast, and from central Montana, Col- 

 orado, and Texas east to the valleys of the Hudson 

 and Delaware; rare in New England. Irregularly 

 migratory in the northern parts of its range. 



THIS conspicuous bird is one of the handsomest 

 members of the Woodpecker family. He is the 

 only one really entitled to the name of Red-Headed Wood- 

 pecker. His male relatives wear only small skull-caps 

 placed on their crowns at various angles; he possesses 



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