Hairy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red-shafted Woodpecker, Lewis’ Woodpecker, Red-breasted Woodpecker

This species and the Downy Woodpecker are remarkably similar in pattern, differing mainly in size and bill shape. They often occur together, but the Hairy, a larger bird, requires larger trees; it is usually less common, especially in the east, and less likely to show up in suburbs and city parks. In its feeding it does more pounding and excavating in trees than most smaller woodpeckers, consuming large numbers of wood-boring insects.

Primarily a bird of the southeast, where its rolling calls are familiar sounds in swamps and riverside woods. Omnivorous and adaptable, this woodpecker has also adjusted to life in suburbs and city parks, and in recent years it has been expanding its range to the north. Despite the name, the red on the belly is not often visible in the field.

This brown woodpecker flashes bright colors under the wings and tail when it flies. The Northern Flicker's ringing calls and short bursts of drumming can be heard in spring throughout most of North America. Two very different-looking forms -- Yellow-shafted Flicker in the east and north, and Red-shafted Flicker in the west -- were once considered separate species. They interbreed wherever their ranges come in contact. On the western Great Plains, there is a broad zone where all the flickers are intergrades between Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted.

One of our oddest woodpeckers (and not only because of its colors, which include pink, silver, and oily green). Although it climbs trees in woodpecker style, it feeds mostly by catching insects in acrobatic flight: swooping out from a perch like a flycatcher, circling high in the air like a swallow. Wide rounded wings give it a more buoyant flight than most woodpeckers. In fall, Lewis's Woodpecker chops up acorns and other nuts, stores them in crevices, then guards the storage area for its winter food supply. Discovered on the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806, and named for the expedition's co-leader.

A very close relative of the Yellow-bellied and Red-naped sapsuckers, replacing them on the Pacific slope. It was considered to belong to the same species for some time, so differences in behavior have not been studied much until recently.