Puerto Rican Woodpecker

The Puerto Rican Woodpecker (Melanerpes portoricensis) is the sole endemic picid woodpecker across Puerto Rico and satellite islands^[1] like Vieques.

• Common Name(s): Puerto Rican Woodpecker
• Family: Picidae
• Body Dimensions: 23–27 cm
• Male Plumage Color(s): Black With Bright Red Throat and Breast, White Forehead Patch
• Female Plumage Color(s): Duller Red Throat and Breast Than Male
• Habitat: Forests and Tree Groves
• Diet: Insects, Fruits
• Native Countries: Puerto Rico
• Continent(s): North America
• Taxonomy Classification Year: 1803
• Taxonomist(s): François Marie Daudin

Puerto Rican Woodpecker Fun Facts

• Mainly black-bodied with vivid red throats and breast bands, males flaunt brighter hues than females. Both sexes sport a distinctive white stripe between the eyes.
• Reaching 23-27 cm long and weighing about 60 grams, these agile birds favor forests and tree groves where they drill for insects and larvae.
• Unlike woodpecker relatives focused solely on chiseling out prey inside woody tunnels, the Puerto Rican Woodpecker’s diverse diet mixes beetles and ants with ample fruit.
• Nesting in existing cavities, females lay 1-6 glossy white eggs. Cavities carved in aged trunks and limbs by these woodpeckers also provide crucial habitat for other endemic species like the Puerto Rican Flycatcher and Yellow-shouldered Blackbird.
• Once ranging across a combined Virgin Islands-Puerto Rico landmass during the Pleistocene Era, Habitat Loss has extinguished the Puerto Rican Woodpecker from former footholds like St. Croix.
• Classified as Least Concern by the IUCN Red List, this adaptable species remains common across wooded Puerto Rican habitats from mangroves to mountain forests. Still, even easily overlooked generalist species merit continued population monitoring and habitat conservation.

Protecting mature stands with snags and dead limbs for nesting and mixed forest composition to supply insect prey and fruit will sustain Puerto Rico’s sole endemic woodpecker and the web of cavity-nesting birds relying on this forest engineer.

Cite This Page