The Lineated Woodpecker or Dryocopus lineatus (eBird link) is one of the more colorful woodpeckers found throughout Central America and in most of South America, standing out with their bright red head of hair! Here he is often confused with the less frequent Pale-billed Woodpecker, found only in Central America and southern Mexico, but his black face and the white neck line running all the way to his bill quickly distinguish him from the Pale-billed which cannot be identified by the bill because both have pale bills! 🙂 My Lineated Woodpecker Gallery shows that I’ve seen him all over Costa Rica including more than once here in my garden where this one was photographed in my Cecropia Tree last week, my favorite bird tree! 🙂
And oh yeah, a lot of Americans say he reminds them of the Pileated Woodpecker found in most of the U.S. which has several differences, but both do have that bright red head of hair!
As does Woody Woodpecker, the cartoon character born the same year as me, 1940! He was created by Walter Lantz and originally voiced by the actor Mel Blanc. Lantz was supposedly inspired to draw him by an Acorn Woodpecker heard by his honeymoon cabin in California, but used the now extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker as his model when first drawn which was, by the way, a whole lot like both this Lineated and the Pale-billed Woodpeckers down here in Central America! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
How interesting regarding Woody Woodpecker! Special people were born in 1940!
Thank you!
xoxo
🙂