Lewis's Woodpecker

About the Lewis's Woodpecker

Lewis's Woodpecker is the woodpecker that forgot to act like one. Instead of drilling bark all day, it spends much of its time perched on an open snag and sallying out to catch flying insects in the air, more like a flycatcher than a woodpecker. In flight it rows along on broad, dark wings, and people often mistake it for a small crow or a jay at first look.

Adults are unlike any other North American woodpecker: a dark, oily green back that shines in good light, a dark red face, a silver-gray collar, and a rosy pink belly. Young birds, like the one in these photos, are duller and browner, with only a hint of pink below and little or no red on the face. The species is named for Meriwether Lewis, who described it on the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805.

In Texas this is a genuine rarity. Lewis's Woodpecker breeds in the interior West and shows up here only in some falls and winters, mostly in the Trans-Pecos and the Panhandle, often in years when acorn or pine-nut crops fail farther north. In fall and winter it switches to a diet of acorns and nuts, which it stores in bark cracks and guards from other birds.

This young bird was at Dog Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in late October 2026, on the Texas side just below the New Mexico line. Lewis's Woodpecker numbers have dropped across much of its range as burned and open forest habitat has been lost, so every Texas record is worth a careful look.