Top 10 Birds With Red On Head(Pictures And Info)

Pileated Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker

Birds are fascinating and one of the most wonderful creatures and incredibly diverse in the world. There are 10,000 species of birds that has been discovered so far and 500 more are yet t be discovered. Birds colour patterns are amazing, Here is the list of birds with red on head,

Birds With Red On Head

1.Cassin’s Finch

Cassin’s Finch is a small brown bird that can grow upto 6.3 inches in length and wieght around 0.8-1.2 oz. The total wingspan of the bird species is 9.8-10.6 inches. Talking about the appearance, they have heavy bills that are fairly long and straight-sided along with tails that are notched. Both male and female are of different appearance where males are rosy pink overall with the most intense red on the crown and females are brown-and-white birds with crisp, dark streaks on underpants. It loves to thrive up to about 10,000 feet elevation, howvever, in winters they move to lower elevations. The diet includes seeds of pines and buds of quaking aspen.

Cassin's Finch
Cassin’s Finch

2.Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager is again a medium size bird species that come with big bodies and large heads. It can be easily identified with large, thick and blunt-tipped bills. It can grow upto 6.7 inches in length and 1.1 oz in weight. Male species is entirely red, howvever, females are yellower on the head and underparts and slightly greener on the back and wings. The bird species prefer deciduous trees or mixed pine-oak woodlands. It loves to stay high in the forests where it will catch insects in midair, or move slowly along tree branches to glean food. The longest recorded lifespan of a summer tanager is 5 years.

Also Read: Top 10 Birds Chirping At Night(Pictures And Info)

Summer Tanager
Summer Tanager

3.Western Tanager

Western Tanager is a medium-sized bird species mostly seen in the regions of the western coast of North America from Alaska to Baja California, extend east to Texas and through central New Mexico, central Colorado, extreme northwest Nebraska. One of the beautiful birds with red on the head is not natural and it is acquired by the diet of insects that themselves acquire it from plants. The bird species has been first identified or recorded on the Lewis and Clark expedition(1803-1806). A group of Western Tanager is known as the “season” of tanagers.

Western Tanager
Western Tanager

4.Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager is a medium-sized American songbird that belongs to Cardinals, Grosbeaks and Buntings families. The bird species loves to thrive in thick deciduous woodlands and suburbs. It can be easily identified in oak forests in summer and sometimes it is out of sight when resting in the leafy upper branches of the trees. The diet primarily includes insects and some berries as well, however, there are instances when it caught the flies in mid-air. The young bird leaves the nest after 9 to 15 days and then guided by parents especially females for 2 more weeks. It is mostly seen in eastern North America and winter in northern and western South America, from Panama in the north as far south as Bolivia. It is one of the beautiful orange and black birds in the world.

Scarlet tanager
Scarlet tanager

5.Red-headed Woodpecker

The red-headed woodpecker is a small or medium-sized type of woodpecker bird species seen in the temperate climate of North America but the bird loves to breed in the open country across southern Canada and the eastern-central United States (woodpecker species commonly seen in Ohio). It is one of the amazing birds with red on head and it is one of the most prominent red parts of its plumage on the head, howvever, it varies with species. Talking about the apperance, the adult bird species has a black back and tail and a red head and neck but the underparts are mostly white. It can grow upto 19 to 25 cm in length along with a wingspan of 42.5 cm. The varage wieght of the species is 56 to 97 gms and its diet includes insects, seeds, fruits, berries, nuts, and occasionally small rodents and even the eggs of other birds.

Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-headed Woodpecker

6.Red-breasted Sapsucker

The red-breasted sapsucker is also a medium-sized woodpecker seen in the forests areas of the west coast of North America. Talking about the apperance, the adult species has a red head and hence listed as one of the popular birds with red on head. The lower belly is white and rump. A wing patch can be seen on the body and black on the backside of the body. The bird species migrate south towards winter and often move to the coastal lowlands in winter. It produces a variety of noises such as chatter, squeals, and scream-like calls, and they also drum with their bills on various surfaces. It prefers nesting in dead tree especially a deciduous tree that too in the month of April or May and produces one brood per breeding season.

Red-breasted Sapsucker
Red-breasted Sapsucker

Image Source: Wikimedia

7.Pileated Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker is a black woodpecker native to North America. It prefers deciduous forests in eastern North America and in the boreal forests of Canada. The bird species even seen in parts of the Pacific Coast and also listed as the second-largest woodpecker species in the United States of America. The adult species can grow upto 40 to 49 cm in length along with a total wingspan of 66 to 75 cm. The avarage wieght of the species is 300 gms and the red crest on the head is known as “Pileated”. This is the primary reason it is listed as the amazing birds with red on the head in the world. It is mostly seen in the regions of forested areas across Canada, the eastern United States, and parts of the Pacific Coast.

Pileated Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker

8.Red-bellied Woodpecker

The Red-bellied Woodpecker is a medium-sized bird species that belong to the family Picidae. The bird species loves to breed in the eastern United States, ranging as far south as Florida and as far north as Canada. Talking about the appearance, the most prominent part is the red patch on the head and hence the name red-headed woodpecker. It was first identified and described by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his popular book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands which was published between 1729 and 1732. It can grow upto 22.85 to 26.7 cm long with a wingspan of 38 to 46 cm. The avarage wieght of the species is 2.0 to 3.2 oz. They are noisy birds and known to create many varied calls such as churr-churr-churr or thrraa-thrraa-throat with an alternating br-r-r-r-t sound.

Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker

9.Acorn Woodpecker

Acorn Woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker scientifically known as Melanerpes formicivorus that can grow upto 21 cm in length and has an avarage wieght of 85 gms. The bird species was formally first described by the English naturalist William John Swainson under the binomial name Picus formicivorus from a specimen collected in Mexico in the year 1827. Talking about the appearance, it has a brownish-black head, back, wings and tail along with a white forehead and rump. The eyes are also white and there is a small part on their backs where there are some green feathers. The bird species breeds in the region of Oregon, California, and the southwestern United States, south through Central America to Colombia.

Acorn Woodpecker
Acorn Woodpecker

Image Source: Wikimedia

10.Downy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker is a species of woodpecker and also listed as the smallest woodpecker species in North America(birds from Iowa). The woodpecker was first described by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, which was published between 1729 and 1732. The avarage total length of the bird species is 25 to 31 cm and the wieght is approximately 20 to 33 gms. The total wingspan of the species is 25 to 31 cm and the diet includes mostly a variety of insects, especially beetles and ants, also gall wasps and caterpillars. They have also seen eating seeds and berries. The varage lifespan of the bird is one and two years.

Downy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker

These are the popular birds with red on head in the world. Kindly share and do post your comments.