Unusual Bird: Leucistic Female Red-bellied Woodpecker
Additional images:
This beautiful pale female red-belly has shown up sporadically at my feeder over the past three weeks. She’s very shy, so these are the best, and the only, two photos I’ve got of her. I’ve nicknamed her “Casper”. Of note: several summers ago I had a pair red-belly fledglings, one male, one female, coming to this same suet feeder in the holly. I believe this to be the “grown-up” version of the female. (The parents had “normal” plumage.) I have photos from then as well but I’d have to do some digging in order fine ’em!
Categories: Leucistic birds
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8 comments on “Unusual Bird: Leucistic Female Red-bellied Woodpecker”
I have one in my back yard right now. It looks just like the one in your picture but it’s a juvenile. Mama is still feeding it seeds from my feeders. My photos are not that good because I don’t have a zoom lens. I was amazed to see one. Hopefully, I will keep seeing it around and watch what other colors it may show.
I saw this beautiful female variety now coming to my suet feeders in the mornings.. last week it was the male. My picture is an exact match to the one submitted. I live in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia.
We have one that comes to our suet feeder. We enjoy watching her every day. She flies off into the woods on the side of our house so I’m quite sure her nest is in there. May try to find it once the snow melts as we are in Wisconsin and we still have a foot of snow on the ground. I have lots of pictures but can’t seem to post here.
I have one in my property, she was a fledgling last year when I started photographing her. Always being chased away by other birds and then she disappeared in Winter. She recently came back, one year older and looking more matured and showing more red. She is still very shy and skittish, constantly being harassed by other birds. I have a Cooper’s Hawk that lurks around so hopefully she will survive.
just now I have a red bellied female on a post on my deck. She stumbled getting up on the post but is now clinging to it normally. However she appears stunned? I can get very close to her but she does not so much as blink. I am going to leave out some sunflower seeds for her. I’ll post a picture if I can get one. What a wonderful visitor to see here in a crowd of robins…We are in Bergen County New Jersey.
Hello, Thanks for reaching out! If you see a bird that appears to be compromised in some way, perhaps due to sickness or injury, do not try to care for the bird yourself – Call your local wildlife rehabilitator or a licensed veterinarian. For more info, please feel free to check out our page on Sick Birds and Bird Diseases.
We have a leucistic red-bellied woodpecker here in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. It eats suet and drinks from birdbath. So unusual and exciting!
I had one of these today – but couldn’t identify it on Merlin