Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Melanerpes aurifrons

Order PICIFORMES - Family PICIDAE - Subfamily Picinae

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A stripe-backed woodpecker of Mexico and Central America, the Golden-fronted Woodpecker reaches the United States only in the brushlands and open woodlands of Texas and Oklahoma.

Cool Facts

• The Golden-fronted Woodpecker is composed of four subspecies that differ in size, amount of barring on the tail, and the color of the nape, nasal tufts, and belly. Whereas the nape of the form found in Texas and most of Mexico is yellow to orange, it is red on the Yucatan Peninsula and orange farther south. The four forms were formerly considered different species.
• The Golden-fronted Woodpecker consumes about as much fruit and nuts as it does insects. In summer in Texas, the faces of some woodpeckers become stained purple from eating fruit of the prickly pear cactus.

Description

• Size: 22-26 cm (9-10 in)
• Wingspan: 43 cm (17 in)
• Weight: 65-102 g (2.29-3.6 ounces)

• Medium- to large-sized woodpecker.
• Back barred black-and-white.
• Orange-yellow back of neck.
• White rump.
• Male with red cap.

• Tail black with some barring on outer feathers.
• Yellow tufts over nostrils.
• Sides of head, breast, and flanks grayish.
• Center of belly yellow.
• Large white patch in wings visible in flight.
• Bill black to grayish black.
• Eyes deep reddish brown.
• Legs and feet greenish gray.

Sex Differences

Male with red cap, female with grayish cap.

Immature

Juvenile similar to adult, but duller, with fine streaking on crown and breast, and only faint color on nape and nasal tufts. Eyes brown.

Similar Species

• Red-bellied Woodpecker has red nape, crown (in the male), and nasal tufts, and white-barred, not black central tail feathers.
• Gila Woodpecker has a plain gray head and nape, barred central tail feathers, and fine black bars on its rump.

Sound

Call a loud, raspy "churr." Also short "check" notes and drums.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Resident from southwestern Oklahoma southward through central Texas and eastern Mexico to Nicaragua.

Habitat

Open to semiopen woodlands, second-growth forests, and brushlands.

Food

Insects, fruit, seeds, occasional birds' eggs and lizards.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans insects from bark, probes into holes and dead wood, scales bark, hawks for flying insects.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nests in holes in limbs and trunks of live or dead trees.

Egg Description

White.

Clutch Size

Usually 4-5 eggs. Range: 4-7.

Condition at Hatching

Naked and helpless with eyes closed.

Conservation Status

Populations appear stable. Increased in Texas and Oklahoma in second half of 20th century with the proliferation of mesquite on rangeland.

Other Names

Pic à front doré (French)
Carpintero cheje (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Husak, M. S., and T. C. Maxwell. 1998. Golden-fronted Woodpecker (Melanerpes aurifrons). In The Birds of North America, No. 373 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.