Mystery Bird: Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Melanerpes carolinus

Ooh, one of my most favorite birds... Red-Bellied Woodpecker. Scarlet nape and crown, black-and-white barred back. Looks like a female, with the incomplete scarpet on the forehead. The "red belly" is sometimes only a wash of orange and is often not visible in the field. We have 2 (perhaps 3) families of red-bellies -- adults with fledglings -- visiting our suet and seed feeders every day lately. They are bold and beautiful and we enjoy them all year 'round. (Connecticut, USA) Thank you for this lovely photo.

SCARLET, not scarpet! Well, "scarpet" actually sounds rather cool.

I agree with Sarah on the ID, but I think that's a male. Females don't have red on the top of their heads at all-just on the back.

I think it's a male red-bellied woodpecker, because of the scarlet on the head extending down the nape almost to the bird's back.

Yup, definitely a make Red-bellied. Here's a decent example of the female (halfway down the post), with the red only extending up to the back or middle of the head.

A very nice shot of the RBWO, by the way!

Beautiful woodpecker, the Red-bellied is! Starlings drive them out of a cavity in my neighbor's yard every spring, but they seem to find a place to nest, since they come to my birdfeeder and eat suet. Visit my CREATE A WILDLIFE-FRIENDLY YARD site at http://wildlifefriendlylawn.blogspot.com/