Woodpeckers of the Bay Area

Woodpeckers are a delightful family of birds (Picidae) most often found clinging to tree trunks and branches while using their stiff tails to aid in hitching up and around the tree. They forage with long, stout bills by probing tree bark in search of wood-boring beetles, ants, caterpillars, spiders, and larvae. As omnivores, you’ll also see woodpeckers eating fruits, seeds, nuts, acorns, and catkins. Woodpeckers use their powerful bills to communicate by drumming on resonate surfaces and to excavate their nest cavities.
 
In general, eight woodpecker species are found in the greater Bay Area. Some are widespread and common across all the Bay Area counties, like the Downy and Nuttall’s Woodpeckers. Others, like the Pileated and Lewis’s Woodpeckers, are uncommon and only found in particular habitats.
 
A good way of differentiating woodpeckers by sight is to home in on the back pattern — check to see if the back is solid black, striped, or if it has a vertical white patch.
 
All woodpeckers have one particularly wild feature — an incredibly long tongue. The tongue starts at the upper beak and wraps around the back of the skull when retracted. This allows a woodpecker to store its long tongue when not using it to slurp up insects, ants, or sap. Check out this cool illustration by Denise Takahashi:

Scroll to read about each of these species, or click on these names below to jump to a particular species:

1. Acorn Woodpecker
2. Nuttall’s Woodpecker
3. Downy Woodpecker
4. Hairy Woodpecker
5. Northern Flicker
6. Pileated Woodpecker
7. Red-breasted Sapsucker
8. Lewis’s Woodpecker
 

1. Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus)

A clown in a bird costume, or a bird in clown make-up — you decide! The Acorn Woodpecker has glossy black feathers including a solid black back, and both sexes have a rounded red cap. The most striking part of this bird may be its black-and-ivory face pattern combined with a large pale eye. In flight, a white rump-patch and white wing-patches are unveiled as it flies in an exaggerated, lazy undulation. Acorn Woodpeckers are often in groups and are known to have an incredibly complex social structure.

Acorn Woodpeckers are most closely associated with oak woodlands, but can also be found in conifer forests, riparian corridors, and suburban parks. These boisterous birds are known for drilling small holes in trees to cache acorns for winter — a hole-riddled tree like this is called a “granary tree.” However, acorns consist of only about half of their diet; the other half coming in the form of other fruits, insects, beetles, and sap. It’s quite common to see them chasing down flying insects in graceful foraging displays.

Fun fact: The creator of Woody the Woodpecker stayed at a cabin surrounded by noisy Acorn Woodpeckers, which inspired the cartoon character’s iconic laugh. However, Woody’s look is clearly more similar to a Pileated Woodpecker.

Here are two of the Acorn Woodpecker’s most commonly heard calls. First up is a raucous, laughing-like call.

Next, here’s a call that sounds a bit more like a sputtered trill.

2. Nuttall’s Woodpecker (Dryobates nuttallii)

The Nuttall’s Woodpecker is quite small at around 7 inches (only slightly larger than the Downy Woodpecker). In our area, the Nuttall’s is definitively identified by the white horizontal barring that spans the entirety of its back. Males have red on their crown, while females are just black and white.

Nuttall’s Woodpeckers can be found in oak woodlands, riparian corridors, and residential areas with trees. They can be observed probing into bark or simply picking off insects crawling on the trees and vegetation.

As one of the more vocal woodpeckers, their ringing rattle is commonly heard — often repeated in short bursts while staying on the same pitch. Here are two sound samples below.

3. Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)

The darling Downy Woodpecker is the most diminutive of the bunch, measuring in at around 6 inches. Look for the conspicuous vertical white patch on the back to distinguish it from our other small woodpecker — the Nuttall’s Woodpecker, who has only horizontal white stripes. Male Downy Woodpeckers sport a small red patch on the crown, while females lack any red.

The Downy’s plumage pattern is nearly identical to that of the Hairy Woodpecker, making differentiation of these two species difficult. Still, there are a few field marks that can assist with the ID. The Downy sports a smaller bill relative to its head size, while the Hairy’s bill is about as long as the width of its head. Another clue is to notice the underside of the tail — where only on the Downy Woodpecker you’ll find black stripes, often appearing as black spots from a side profile view.
 
Downy Woodpeckers are most often found in open, deciduous woodlands. It’s not unusual to observe them foraging on very skinny branches — picking at insects, fruits, galls, and even grains and seeds.

The Downy Woodpecker has a distinctive call — listen for a string of fairly sharp, squeaky “pik” notes that descend. One helpful way to remember this is — the call of the Downy goes down.

4. Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus)

The Hairy Woodpecker looks extremely similar to the Downy Woodpecker, sporting a vertical white patch on its back and an identical face pattern. The best characteristics to tell the Hairy apart are its overall larger size and relative length of its beak. The Hairy’s bill is about as long as its head, resulting in a more classic “woodpecker-like” beak. Remember this: “Hairy is huge / Downy is dainty.”
 
Also, notice the lack of black spots on the white outer-tail feathers in all these Hairy Woodpecker photos — this is a subtle, but helpful distinction from the Downy.
 
But like the Downy, male Hairy Woodpeckers have a red crown-patch, while females are just black and white.

Comparable to the size of an American Robin, Hairy Woodpeckers are most often found in medium-to-large trees — in conifer, deciduous, and mixed forests, as well as suburban habitats and parks.
 
In our personal experience, we generally seem to see Hairy Woodpeckers on larger tree trunks and branches, and Downy Woodpeckers on small and skinny branches. However, keep in mind this is just a broad generalization — for example, we spotted this Hairy Woodpecker juvenile amid a set of skinny branches.

The Hairy Woodpecker vocalizes with a sharp and squeaky single-note “peek!” as well as a rapid fire “peek-peek-peek-peek…” on a steady pitch. Remember, in contrast, the Downy Woodpecker’s call descends in pitch.

Check out this video of a male Hairy Woodpecker hard at work excavating a nesting cavity in a utility pole — recorded in late March.

 

5. Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)

In contrast to the black-white-and-red combo of many woodpeckers, the Northern Flicker sports a different color palette along with a wide array of stripes, dots, and splotches. In flight, it flashes red-orange under the wings and tail and a large white rump-patch. Its gray-brown back has thin black barring and its pale belly is littered with black polka dots. The black bib on the upper breast is present in both sexes, while only males shows a red mustache mark on the face. Flickers are large woodpeckers, measuring 11-12 inches.

Unlike most other woodpeckers, Northern Flickers are regularly seen on the ground foraging for ants, beetles, and other insects rather than boring into tree bark.
 
Fun Fact: Northern Flickers in the eastern United States show bright yellow under the wings and tail, versus the red-orange seen in the western United States.

A commonly heard call of the Northern Flicker is a single, ringing sound written out as “kyeeeeur!” or “peeoough!” Listen to this call below.

Another common sound is a long “ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki” on a steady pitch — here’s a sample of that.

6. Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

The awe-inspiring Pileated Woodpecker is about the size of a crow (around 17 inches) and it’s always a show-stopper when we’re lucky enough to spot one! Its bright red crest, long face, and powerful chisel-like beak give it a unique, angular look. The solid black back contrasts with a white striped face and neck. Males have a red mustache (malar) mark, while females lack red on the face. While both males and females have red on the head, the red of a male extends the length of its forehead to its beak. In flight, Pileated Woodpeckers flap deliberately — flashing large, white wing-patches.

Pileated Woodpeckers are most often found in mature forests (both conifer and deciduous) foraging for carpenter ants, termites, beetle larvae, as well as other insects, fruits and nuts.

Check out this video we took of an interaction between a Pileated Woodpecker and an Acorn Woodpecker. The Pileated had been drilling into a snag for some time. Ten feet above, an Acorn Woodpecker looked on — and now and then, dive-bombed the larger interloper.

 
We often hear a Pileated Woodpecker calling loudly in the redwood forest surrounding our house. Listen below to its ringing calls — “wuk-wuk-wuk-wuk-wuk!!” often slightly modulating in pitch and/or speed.

7. Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber)

As a group, sapsuckers are in their own genus (Sphyrapicus) within the woodpecker family, and are generally identifiable by a large, vertical white wing-patch.
 
The Red-breasted Sapsucker is a short-distance migrant and not really considered a year-round resident in the greater Bay Area. Although occasionally seen during the breeding season, they’re mostly observed between October and March.

Except for a small white mark between the eye and the bill, the Red-breasted Sapsucker has a mostly red head, face, throat and breast. The vertical white wing-patch and mottled white markings running down its back are also helpful field marks. Both sexes are visually identical.

As the name implies, sapsuckers specialize in extracting sap by drilling tiny holes in a tidy horizontal pattern encircling a tree. They then use their sticky tongues to sip sap, as well as any insects attracted to the sap. These “sapsucker rings” are a great clue that one has previously been in the area. Since sapsuckers often return to their favorite spots, trees with sapsucker rings are good to keep an eye on for future sightings.

Fun fact: A group of sapsuckers is known as a “slurp.”

Listen below to a common call of the Red-breasted Sapsucker — a single nasally wail descending in pitch that sounds a bit like a cat’s plaintive “mew.”

8. Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis)

A unique combination of colors make the Lewis’s Woodpecker our most unmistakable of the bunch. This weird woodpecker sports a pink belly, green wings and back, a gray collar, and a red face.
 
This is probably the least common woodpecker that regularly appears across the greater Bay Area, and you’re more likely to see the Lewis’s in the inland-side of the eastern counties versus the coastal counties. They’re found in logged and burned forests, foothills, and some woodland areas. As for spotting a Lewis’s Woodpecker, they often perch prominently on wires, posts, and branches. They also sally out to catch flying insects mid-air (akin to a flycatcher) — a behavior which can aid in detecting their presence. Lewis’s Woodpeckers also eat fruits and berries, as well as acorns and nuts that they cache for winter.
 
We don’t have any audio recordings of the Lewis’s Woodpecker, but they aren’t as vocal compared to the others. They produce some squeaky and chattery calls that sound sort of chipmunk-like to us. You can listen to their vocalizations here at the All About Birds species page.

Well, there you have it, folks… the wonderful world of woodpeckers! We hope you enjoyed reviewing these eight gorgeous woodies as much as we enjoyed writing about them!