Listen to the Red-headed woodpecker
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
About the Red-headed woodpecker
The Red-headed woodpecker is a bird in the family Picidae (order Piciformes). Its conservation status on the IUCN Red List is “least concern”. Adults weigh around 72 g.
What does the Red-headed woodpecker sound like?
Birds produce sound with the syrinx, a vocal organ deep in the chest that can make two independent sounds at once. Songs tend to be long and patterned and are used to hold territory and attract a mate; calls are short signals for contact, alarm and flight.
The recordings here are labelled as call and drumming. Listen for differences in rhythm, pitch and repetition – the spectrum display makes it easy to see whether a sound is a pure whistle (a thin line), a harsh call (a broad band) or a trill (rapid repeated marks).
From Wikipedia
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.
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.
Related birds in the genus Melanerpes
More from the family Picidae
Frequently asked questions
What does a Red-headed woodpecker sound like?
You can hear 4 recordings of the Red-headed woodpecker on this page, including its call and drumming. Birds produce sound with the syrinx, a vocal organ deep in the chest that can make two independent sounds at once.
Is the Red-headed woodpecker endangered?
The IUCN Red List classifies the Red-headed woodpecker as “least concern”.
What family does the Red-headed woodpecker belong to?
The Red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) belongs to the family Picidae in the order Piciformes.
Sources & credits
- Melanerpes erythrocephalus - Red-headed Woodpecker by Jonathon Jongsma – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Melanerpes erythrocephalus - Red-headed Woodpecker by Jonathon Jongsma – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Call, drumming by Jonathon Jongsma – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Call, drumming by Jonathon Jongsma – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata Q578174 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Red-headed woodpecker – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo by colleen – CC BY-SA 2.0