Red-headed woodpecker

Red-headed woodpecker
At a bird feeder in Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Picidae
Genus:	Melanerpes
Species:	M. erythrocephalus
Binomial name
Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Approximate distribution map   Breeding   Year-round   Nonbreeding
Synonyms
Picus erythrocephalus Linnaeus, 1758

The red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) is a mid-sized woodpecker found in temperate North America. Its breeding habitat is open country across southern Canada and the east-central United States. It is rated as least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Endangered species, having been down-listed from near threatened in 2018.^[2]

The red-headed woodpecker should not be confused with the red-bellied woodpecker, which is similar in size but has a vibrant orange-red crown and nape; the red-bellied woodpecker is named for the pale reddish blush of its lower belly and has a distinctly patterned black and white back rather than the solid black one of the red-headed woodpecker.