The red-crowned woodpecker (Melanerpes rubricapillus) is a species of bird in the subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and Tobago.
Taxonomy and systematics
The red-crowned woodpecker has sometimes been placed in the genus Centurus.
Description
The red-crowned woodpecker is long and weighs . The sexes' plumage is alike except for their head pattern. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a pale yellow to whitish forehead, a bright red crown, and an orange-red nape and hindneck. Adult females have the same pale yellow to whitish forehead but a pale gray-buff to whitish crown and a reddish to orange-red nape and hindneck. Both sexes' cheeks, chin, and throat are grayish-buff. Their mantle and back are barred black and white and the rump and uppertail coverts are unbarred white. Their flight feathers are black with white bars throughout. Their tail is black with white bars on the central and outermost pairs of feathers. Their underparts are variable but usually buffish-gray to gray-buff with an olive or yellowish wash and a reddish to orange-red patch on the central belly. Their lower flanks and undertail coverts have black bars. Their bill is longish and blackish, their iris is red to brown, the bare skin around the eye gray-brown, and the legs gray. Juveniles are duller and browner than adults, their nape and hindneck are paler, their upperparts' bars less contrasting, their underparts often lightly streaked, and their belly patch paler and somewhat mottled.