Red-bellied woodpecker

http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/6261812 Here is a red headed wood pecker spotted by luv.

@ heather thanks so much for this interesting information. You are a great Ranger!!

@ Karen ,Thank you so much for the link.

Emma, off-topic I know, but there is a fish (& everything else) identification site! http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Fish

By the way I don't think anyone has mentioned it yet, but the one in your photo is a female - her red cap doesn't go all the way from beak to neck in a solid mark, but is broken in the middle.

Haven't found a good site for fish. I read that the red-bellied woodpecker is one of the first birds people see that gets them into actual birdwatching. Most folks can pick out a male cardinal, a blue jay and everything else is a bird. Then the see a red-bellied woodpecker and it's a new day. :-P

Awesome information Heather!! Thanks so much for sharing!! Definitely makes identification easier. i wish that there was a similar site to Id Fish. i would love to see a Red headed wood pecker too!

@Emma - if you are saying the two birds are the Red-bellied woodpecker and the Red-Headed woodpecker - I'd say both the wings and the head are different. Species___Red-bellied woodpecker______The Red-Headed woodpecker head______red mohawk (white ears)_____totally red head wings_____black and white "bars" up_____Mostly black up top, solid white __________top with black tails__________towards tail with black tails bellies_____males get the reddish_______white belly __________long stripe as they mature __________and otherwise have a __________reddish tint to their bellies bill________straight and black__________yellow towards the face, black tip range_____South & Eastern USA_______South & Eastern USA ___________________________________(the rarer of the two species) --all info from Cornell page

@ heather it is the barring on the back that differentiates the two. I would go with red bellied wood pecker as the Id.

It is strange that the red-head looks like a mohawk, it's a red-bellied woodpecker. If it looks like a complete red head, it's a red-headed woodpecker. "The Red-bellied Woodpeckers are pale, medium-sized woodpeckers common in forests of the East. Their strikingly barred backs and gleaming red caps make them an unforgettable sight – just resist the temptation to call it a Red-headed Woodpecker, a somewhat rarer species that's mostly black on the back with big white wing patches. Learn the Red-bellied's rolling call and you’ll notice these birds everywhere." http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-bellied_Woodpecker/id The link to the red-headed woodpecker is http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-headed_Woodpecker/id Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a great site for looking at similar species and figuring out which was different and similar species. It is a fabulous site. First, you look at the most prominent features, then look at heads or wings, or tails or beak, or legs...then size, time of year, location, and behaviors. More or less that is the prominent things to look at when the scientists identify birds.

Scroll down to the second image on this page to see the red belly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zxgirl/4348083966/

Yes - the Red-Bellied Woodpecker does actually have some red on its belly, but I agree that naming a bird with much more prominent features by one that's barely visible is silly. The naming happened back in the day when birds were shot and then examined "bird-in-hand", where you would then see the red tint to the belly. Perhaps the Red-headed Woodpecker had already been found and named by then. Another ridiculous incidence of this is the Ring-necked Duck: http://www.1000birds.com/stocklist-Ring-necked-Duck.htm Which I and most folks I know keep accidentally calling a "Ring-billed Duck". It does have a very subtle ring around its neck which you can very rarely see when observing a live duck in the wild.

I like photos with animals interacting too, but for identification purposes, it's best to pick one as the main organism. This is a picture begging for a caption like yours Emma.

I like these kind of spottings with two species sitting side by side! the wood pecker looks like it is saying " I am the King" The blue jay looks like it's saying , "Who is this weirdo?"