Lewis's woodpecker Melanerpes lewis

Identification Tips:

• Length: 9 inches
• Sexes similar
• Fairly large, dark, woodpecker
• Flies with slow, steady crow-like wingbeats

Adult:

• Dark bronze-green head, back, upperwings, rump, and uppertail
• Gray collar and upper breast
• Deep red face
• Pink belly

Juvenile:

• Bronze-green upperparts
• Brownish head and chest (with faint barring)
• Pink belly

Similar species:

Wholly dark plumage sets this woodpecker apart from all others. No other woodpecker in the U.S.A. has wings that are entirely solid in color. This and its distinctive crow-like flaps, which contrast markedly with the undulating flight of other woodpeckers, render it easily identifiable at a great distance.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.