West Indian woodpecker

The West Indian woodpecker (Melanerpes superciliaris) is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and Cuba.

The West Indian woodpecker is about 27 to 32 cm (11 to 13 in) long and weighs 48 to 126 g (1.7 to 4.4 oz). Individuals on large islands are larger than those on small islands, and males are generally heavier and slightly larger than females. Males and females have the same plumage except for the pattern on their heads. Adult males of the nominate subspecies M. s. superciliaris have a red crown, nape, and hindneck and a black supercilium that extends to the red. Adult females have a whitish crown and the black supercilium entends around to separate the crown from the red nape. On adults of both sexes the rest of the head is white to buffish white. Their upperparts are mostly barred black and buffy or yellowish white, with white uppertail coverts that have a few black marks. Their flight feathers are black with white bars and tips on the primaries and secondaries. Their tail is mostly black with wide white bars on the innermost and outermost pairs of feathers. Their underparts are grayish with a buffy brown to pale yellow-olive tinge on the breast, whitish flanks and undertail coverts with black bars, and a red to orange red patch on the belly. Their iris is red to reddish brown, their bill is black, and their legs and feet are olive. Juveniles are duller overall than adults, have indistinct barring and often a reddish tinge on the upperparts, and have a larger but less distinct red patch on the belly. Males have a red crown patch and females a red crown with some black feathers.

Subspecies M. s. nyeanus is much smaller than the nominate. It has only a very small black supercilium and a slight green tinge to the underparts. M. s. blakei is also much smaller than the nominate. It has a darker and grayer face and underparts and a greenish-buff tinge to the upper back's pale bars. M. s. murceus is second in size to the nominate and has essentially the same plumage. M. s. caymanensis is smaller than murceus but somewhat larger than nyeanus and blakei. Its face has no black and the female's hindcrown is grayish. The pale bars on its back are strongly buffish and the black ones narrower than the nominate's. Its tail has more white.