Red-headed Woodpecker on 140 lb watercolor paper.The Red-headed Woodpecker (*Melanerpes erythrocephalus*) is a strikingly beautiful bird and one of North America's most visually distinctive woodpeckers. Its most dramatic feature is its entirely crimson-red head and neck, which contrasts boldly with its snow-white underparts and black back and wings — making it look almost like it's wearing a tuxedo topped with a red hood. In flight, large white patches on its wings flash conspicuously, making it easy to identify even from a distance. It's a medium-sized woodpecker, roughly 7–9 inches long, with a strong, chisel-like bill and the characteristic stiff tail feathers used for bracing against tree bark. Unlike many woodpeckers, it's highly versatile — it catches insects in the air, forages on the ground, and is one of the few woodpeckers known to store food by wedging nuts and grasshoppers into bark crevices. Once common across the eastern and central United States, its numbers have declined significantly due to habitat loss and competition for nest cavities, earning it a place on conservation watch lists.
