Medium-sized and small birds, usually with plumage black and white, and always
with some red feathers about the head. (The flicker is brownish and yellow
instead of black and white.) Stocky, high-shouldered build; bill strong and
long for drilling holes in bark of trees. Tail feathers pointed and stiffened
to serve as a prop. Two toes before and two behind for clinging. Usually seen
clinging erect on tree-trunks; rarely, if ever, head downward, like the
nuthatches, titmice, etc. Woodpeckers feed as they creep around the trunks and
branches. Habits rather phlegmatic. The flicker has better developed vocal
powers than other birds of this class, whose rolling tattoo, beaten with their
bills against the tree-trunks, must answer for their love-song. Nest in
hollowed-out trees.
Red-headed Woodpecker.
Hairy Woodpecker.
Downy Woodpecker.
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker.
Flicker.