Birdfinding.info ⇒  Easy to find throughout Jamaica, occurring at all the frequently visited sites, including urban sites such as Hope Botanical Garden.  Especially observable at Rocklands Bird Sanctuary, where it attends the feeders.

Jamaican Woodpecker

Melanerpes radiolatus

Family: Picidae

Endemic to Jamaica, where it is common in wooded habitats throughout the island.

Identification

Distinctive and unlikely to be confused with any other species in its range.  Whitish face stands out in contrast with its scarlet crown and olive-brown underparts, giving it an unusual appearance that makes identification automatic.

Wings, back, tail, and vent are mostly black, with fine white barring.

Male’s crown and nape are entirely red.  On females, the red is limited to the hindcrown and nape; the forecrown is grayish.

The only other woodpecker that occurs regularly on Jamaica is the winter migrant Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, which looks entirely different.

Jamaican Woodpecker, male.  (Rocklands Bird Sanctuary, Jamaica; April 19, 2014.)  © Gil Ewing

Jamaican Woodpecker, male.  (Negril, Jamaica; March 25, 2017.)  © Alain Tremblay

Jamaican Woodpecker, male.  (Silver Hill Gap, Jamaica; June 24, 2015.)  © Sam Woods

Jamaican Woodpecker, male.  (Hardwar Gap, Jamaica; February 2014.)  © Tom Davis

Jamaican Woodpecker, male.  (Hope Botanical Garden, Jamaica; January 31, 2019.)  © Yaray Seminario

Jamaican Woodpecker, male.  (Rocklands Bird Sanctuary, Jamaica; December 14, 2017.)  © Nancy Boutin

Jamaican Woodpecker, male.  (Ecclesdown Road, Jamaica; November 2010.)  © Stanley Jones

Jamaican Woodpecker, female.  (Hardwar Gap, Jamaica; February 7, 2014.)  © Jeremy Gatten

Notes

Monotypic species.

References

eBird. 2019. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y. http://www.ebird.org. (Accessed February 22, 2019.)

Gorman, G. 2014. Woodpeckers of the World: A Photographic Guide. Firefly Books, London.

Haynes-Sutton, A., A. Downer, R. Sutton, and Y.-J. Rey-Millet. 2009. A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Jamaica. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.

Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.