Bird Guide

Beautiful Woodpecker vs Jamaican Woodpecker

Beautiful Woodpecker (Melanerpes pulcher)

Beautiful Woodpecker

Melanerpes pulcher

Small52 gForest

The beautiful woodpecker is about 17 to 18 cm (6.7 to 7.1 in) long. The sexes are alike except for their head pattern. Adult males have a whitish forehead, a scarlet crown, and a golden yellow lower nape and hindneck. Adult females have the same whitish forehead and yellow hindneck but a black forecrown and a scarlet hindcrown and nape. Both sexes have black around the eye that extends down the side of the neck. Their lores, cheeks, chin, throat, and breast are white to cream or pale yellow.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: USFWS Mountain Prairie · Public domain
Jamaican Woodpecker (Melanerpes radiolatus)

Jamaican Woodpecker

Melanerpes radiolatus

Medium108 gForest

The Jamaican woodpecker is about 24 to 26 cm (9.4 to 10 in) long and weighs 92 to 131 g (3.2 to 4.6 oz). The sexes' plumage is alike except for their head pattern. Adult males have a whitish to buff forehead and are red from their forecrown to hindneck. Adult females have the same white to buffy white forehead but a gray crown with red only on the hindcrown and hindneck. Their upperparts are black with thin white bars that sometimes have a greenish tinge. The bars are widest on the rump and uppertail coverts. Their flight feathers are black with narrow white bars throughout.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Ron Knight from Seaford, East Sussex, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Beautiful Woodpecker and Jamaican Woodpecker.