Red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 3

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Species Information

Name and classification

The common name for Melanerpes erythrocephalus Linnaeus (1758) is Red-headed Woodpecker.  The French name is “pic à tête rouge”. The taxonomy of this species is as follows:

According to Short (1982), there are no recognized subspecies of the Red-headed Woodpecker. Although there is clinal variation in size (Smith et al. 2000). 

Morphological description

The Red-headed Woodpecker shows the highest degree of monomorphism of all woodpecker species in North America, with the two sexes having identical plumage (Kilham 1978, 1983). A medium-sized bird (length 19.4–23.5 cm; massweight 56–91 g), both the male and female have a crimson head, neck, throat, and upper breast, contrasting with their white underparts and black upperparts. Large white patches, formed by the inner secondaries and tertials, are visible on the wings. The tail is generally black, except for the outermost rectrices, which are white. The upper tail and the rump are also white. The bill is light grey, becoming darker terminally. The iris is reddish-brown in adults. The legs and feet are olive grey (Smith et al. 2000).

During their first fall and winter, immatures can be distinguished from adults by the colour of their head, neck, and upper breast, which ranges from greyish-brown to crimson red (with little or no brown coloration). The secondaries are white and can be distinguished from those of adults by a subterminal black band (complete in juvenile plumage but variable after prebasic moult). The underparts of immatures are generally whitish with variable amounts of dusky streaking, especially on the flanks. The back and tail are generally brownish-black, and the iris is greyish-brown (Smith et al. 2000).

Genetic description

To date, there have been no molecular studies published on M. erythrocephalus. A single unpublished study was carried out to determine the relationship between the Red-headed Woodpecker and other species of Picidae (A. Fry pers. comm. in Smith et al. 2000). Mitochondrial DNA sequences of the Red-headed Woodpecker suggest that this species is closely related to several other members of the genus Melanerpes that occur in the Caribbean, in particular Puerto Rico (M. portoricensis) and Guadeloupe (M. herminieri). This study also suggests that the Red-headed Woodpecker is not as closely related to the Acorn Woodpecker (M. formicivorus) as was suggested by Mayr and Short (1970) and Short (1982).