Bird
Bird
Red-crowned Woodpecker
Melanerpes rubricapillus
The Red-crowned Woodpecker is a small, common woodpecker found in gardens, forest edge, and plantations across Trinidad, often the first woodpecker species new residents and visitors learn to recognise by its bold black-and-white barred back and touch of red on the head.
The Red-crowned Woodpecker is a small, common woodpecker found in gardens, forest edge, and plantations across Trinidad, often the first woodpecker species new residents and visitors learn to recognise by its bold black-and-white barred back and touch of red on the head.
Identification
A small woodpecker around 16 to 17 cm long, with a black-and-white barred back and wings, pale grey face and underparts, and a red patch on the crown and nape extending onto the forehead in males, while females show red restricted to the nape. The rump is white, conspicuous in flight.
Behaviour
Forages on tree trunks and branches for insects, larvae, and spiders, and also readily takes fruit and nectar, making it a common visitor to garden fruit trees and flowering plants. It excavates nest cavities in dead wood or soft-timbered trees, often reusing or expanding old cavities, and is generally seen singly or in pairs.
Status in T&T
Common and widespread across Trinidad in forest edge, plantations, gardens, and semi-open country with scattered trees. Not threatened, and one of the woodpecker species most tolerant of human-modified landscapes. It is protected as native wildlife under the Conservation of Wildlife Act.
