What birds have red heads? 17 kinds with photos! – What …

You saw a striking bird with a red head, did you? You wonder what it is. That shouldn't be too hard to figure out, should it? How many kinds of birds with red heads could there possibly be?

In the United States and Canada there are many birds with either fully or partially red heads. Sometimes there is just a touch of red. Sometimes the entire bird is mostly red. Sometimes the red color is more orange, sometimes it is more pink. The list of birds with red heads includes these:

House Finch

Photo by Greg Gillson

House Finches are found in residential areas, towns, farms throughout the United States. They are only missing from the grasslands of the Great Plains and from most of Florida. They barely reach southern Canada. They are residents, meaning they don't migrate for the most part, rather stay year-round in the same area.

They give chirping calls and sing throughout the year with a wiry warble with scratchy notes at the end.

Purple Finch

Photo by Greg Gillson

Purple Finches live in damper woods. They are found in summer across southern Canada, barely reaching the northern tier of the United States in the Midwest and New England states. They are also found in the mountains of the West, clear south to southern California. In winter they move out of Canada and are found throughout the Eastern US.

They have a rollicking warbled song with three identical quick rolling phrases, ending with two short notes, without the harsh ending noted of House Finches. I think the song sounds like "hurry little, hurry little, hurry little, hup! hup!" They also give a sharp "plic!" call in flight.

They may visit your seed feeder in winter.

Cassin's Finch

Photo by Greg Gillson

Males are very softly brushed with pink. The crown of the head is the brightest red. Note a thin white eye ring and deeply forked tail.

As with most finches they eat mostly seeds.

They give a 3-part call "tee-dee-yip" call and have a long song. The song lacks the harsh notes of House Finch and is less structured than Purple Finch.

Red Crossbill

Photo by Greg Gillson

Crossbills sometimes irrupt in winter, moving in huge numbers from one area to another as the cone crops fail or are abundant locally. They may show up at backyard feeders well outside or south of their typical range, but mostly feed on pine cone seeds.

Males are red; females are yellowish. Birds with large crossed bills feed on the seeds of big pine cones. Birds with dainty bills feed on tiny soft spruce cones.

More than 10 forms of Red Crossbills have been "discovered" recently. They all have different songs and call notes. They have different size of bills and tend to feed on the cone seeds of different species of conifers. But they overlap in range in a confusing manner that scientists are still trying to figure out.

Red Crossbills have a warbling song similar to the finches above and give a doubled "kip-kip" or "jiff-jiff" call.

Pine Grosbeak

Photo by Greg Gillson

Different forms show quite a bit of variation in the amount of coloring--red on males, yellow on females. Otherwise they are about 9 inches long, plump, with two white wing bars, a heavy black conical bill and forked tail.

They eat seeds, fruit and buds in winter. They are especially fond of the fruit clusters of mountain ash trees.

They sing a warbling song and give a flight call of "pui pui pui."

Males are brilliant red throughout with a black face and bib. Females are buffier and duller, but still show some red.

Cardinals eat insects, fruit, and seeds. They readily come to backyard feeders and eat a wide variety of seeds and other bird foods.

Both sexes sing nearly year-round. Common whistled phrases include "cheery cheery cheery."

This species is found from Texas to Arizona and south into Mexico. They live in mesquite thickets and other thorny brush.

Pyrrhuloxias feed on the ground and eat weed seeds and other hard seeds.

They sing a liquid whistles song and have a metallic "chink" call.

Summer Tanager

Photo by Greg Gillson

These birds are found in pine-oak woods in the East, but in cottonwoods in the West (see photo above).

They are found in the East from about Virginia to Iowa and south, west from Texas to southern California and into Mexico. They migrate out of the US in winter, except for a few in southern coastal regions from Florida to Texas and southern California.

They sing robin-like phrases and give a "ki-ti-tuk" call.

Scarlet Tanager

Image by Steve Maslowski, Fish & Wildlife Service. Public domain.

They summer in deciduous woods in the eastern United States and migrate south out of the country in winter.

They sing hoarse robin-like phrases. Call is "chip-burr."

Western Tanager

Photo by Greg Gillson

They are found in the West, from northern Canada barely to Mexico in summer. They winter in Middle America.

These tanagers may appear in fall at backyard bird feeders. But as with all the tanagers, may be attracted to birdbaths and fountains year-round.

They sing a hoarse robin-like song and have clicking calls "pit-er-ick."

Vermilion Flycatcher

Photo by Greg Gillson

Even though they are desert birds they are usually found near stream sides. Typical manmade habitats they favor include golf courses, ball fields, cemeteries.

In breeding season the males sing their song in a fluttery display flight "pi-a-see pit-a-see."

Red-headed Woodpecker

Image by unknown. Public Domain. From Pixabay.

They require trees big enough to drill their nest holes, and away from competition for those holes with European Starlings.

They eat flying insects they catch in the air or find other invertebrate prey, nuts, and seeds on the ground.

Their call is a soft rattle.

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Photo by Greg Gillson

They drill tiny rows of sap wells in trees and then visit them to drink the sap and eat any insects that were trapped in the sticky sap.

They aren't very active, but give themselves away by their periodic wheezy descending calls.

Pileated Woodpecker

Photo by Greg Gillson

They prefer mature forests and deep woodlands, both deciduous and conifer. They drill huge square holes in dead stumps and downed trees to excavate carpenter ants for food. They are one of only a few woodpeckers that will drill their nest cavities into firm live trees.

The loud wild call is a sign you are in the wilderness forests, a ringing "kik-kik, kik-kik, kik."

They readily come to backyard bird feeders. They eat suet, peanuts, and sometimes sunflower seeds. Their "wild" food consists of beetles, grasshoppers, and ants.

A common call is a rolling "churr."

Acorn Woodpecker

Photo by Greg Gillson

They are found wherever there are groves of large oak trees, including pine-oak woodlands.

They live in large family groups and small colonies where they collect and store acorns tightly into the bark of trees. As the acorns dry they shrink and may fall out. So they are constantly testing the fit and moving acorns into better-sized holes. Granary trees can contain many thousands of acorns. They eat these acorns in winter. They also eat insects, frequently flying insects they catch in the air.

These are social and noisy birds, constantly calling "Whack-up! Whack-up!"

Downy Woodpecker

Photo by Greg Gillson

Only the males have a red spot on the back of the head. This is a frequent pattern for woodpeckers around the world. Only a few species have red heads, many types of larger woodpeckers do have red crests, though.

The bill is tiny on this bird compared to other woodpeckers. Thus they tend to pick for beetles, ants, and other bark insects, rather than drilling for food. They are especially fond of suet at backyard feeders.

They give a sharp "pik!" call and in spring "sing" a longer descending whinny call, composed of a very rapid series of those "pik!" calls.

Male hummingbirds have iridescent throats that show red, orange, purple, and pink highlights. There is only one species of hummingbird regularly found in the eastern United States. There are 6 species of hummingbirds throughout most of the western United States. Southeast Arizona, though, is the US capitol for hummingbirds. There are 15 species of hummingbirds that occur in the United States each year. Of the 130 species of hummingbirds in the world (only in the Americas), a total of about 26 have occurred north of Mexico.

Anna's Hummingbird

Photo by Greg Gillson

Anna's Hummingbirds are a common bird of California that have expanded in recent years into Oregon (even a few to SE Alaska) and Arizona. In winter they are found throughout the Baja peninsula and occasionally to Texas.

They eat flower nectar and insects they catch in flight or glean from plants. They take over hummingbird feeders but the tiny Rufous and Allen's Hummingbirds can sometimes stand up to these larger bullies.

Males in spring (winter even!) start singing a long buzzy insect-like refrain from an exposed perch.

What kind of birds have red eyes?