Identification
Red Birds
There are only a handful of genuinely red birds in North America, and almost all of them are separated by one question: which parts of the bird are red, and where does the red stop?
The short answer
- Ask how much of the bird is red before you ask which red it is: all over, front end only, head only, or a single patch.
- A house finch wears red like a bib, with a brown cap behind it and streaked flanks; a purple finch looks dipped in raspberry, with clean flanks.
- A red-bellied woodpecker has a red stripe over the crown and nape on a pale gray face; a red-headed woodpecker has a solid crimson hood with no gray in it at all.
- Male tanagers are the reddest birds on the continent and almost never come to seed, so a brilliant red bird on your feeder is a cardinal.
- Female red birds are mostly not red: female cardinals show red only in the crest, wings and tail, and female tanagers are yellow or olive.
- Redpolls and pine grosbeaks are northern irruptive finches that show up some winters and not others, so absence tells you nothing about your setup.
Red is the color people notice from indoors, through a window, at the far end of a yard. It is also the color with the shortest candidate list in North America. Set aside rusty browns and oranges and there are perhaps a dozen birds most feeder watchers will ever see that read as genuinely red, and each one wears it in a distinctive place.
That is what makes red the easiest color group to work through. You do not need to judge shades of scarlet against shades of vermilion, which is hopeless in changing light. You need to notice whether the red covers the whole bird, stops at the chest, is confined to the head, or shows as a single patch on a wing.
This guide runs through the red feeder birds in that order, with the honest look-alike problems at the end. If you have not read the five-question identification method, it is worth two minutes, because the same approach handles yellow birds and blue birds too.
First question: how much of the bird is red?#
This table is the fastest route to a name. Find the row that matches what you saw and you are usually down to one or two species before you have thought about anything else.
| Where the red is | Species | The confirming detail |
|---|---|---|
| The entire bird, plus a crest and a black face | Northern cardinal, male | Heavy orange-red conical bill, tall pointed crest |
| The entire bird including the wings, no black anywhere | Summer tanager, male | Big pale bill, no crest, in trees rather than on feeders |
| Body scarlet, wings and tail jet black | Scarlet tanager, male | The starkest contrast of any North American bird; a woodland bird, not a feeder bird |
| Forehead, eyebrow, throat and upper breast, with a brown cap behind | House finch, male | Bold blurry brown streaks down the flanks |
| Head, back and breast washed raspberry all over | Purple finch, male | Clean unstreaked flanks, short deeply notched tail |
| A bright red peaked crown contrasting with a paler nape | Cassin's finch, male | Mountain West conifer country, straight-sided bill |
| A small red patch on the forehead only | Common redpoll | Black chin, tiny yellow bill, fine streaking, males add a pink wash on the breast |
| Rosy red over the whole bird with gray flanks and white wingbars | Pine grosbeak, male | Big, plump, long-tailed, with a stubby curved black bill |
| A stripe of red from the bill over the crown and down the nape | Red-bellied woodpecker, male | Black and white barred back, pale gray-buff face and underparts |
| The whole head, as a solid hood down to the shoulders | Red-headed woodpecker | Clean white underparts, black back, huge white wing patches |
| A red shoulder patch bordered with yellow on a black bird | Red-winged blackbird, male | Sharp pointed bill, often shows only the yellow edge when perched |
| Face and a stripe down the center of the breast, on a gray bird | Pyrrhuloxia, male | Stubby, strongly curved yellow bill; desert Southwest only |
| Crown and underparts red, back and mask dark brown | Vermilion flycatcher, male | Perches in the open and darts out after insects; Southwest, not a seed feeder |
| Red only in the crest, wings and tail, body warm brown | Northern cardinal, female | Black face and heavy orange-red bill, same shape as the male |
Where it stops is the field mark
Almost every mistake on this page comes from noting that a bird was red and not noting where the red ended. A note reading red throat, brown cap identifies a house finch. A note reading red bird identifies nothing.
The all-red birds: cardinal, tanagers, pyrrhuloxia#
A male northern cardinal is the default answer to red bird at my feeder across the eastern two thirds of the continent, and it deserves to be. Nothing else combines a full red body, a tall crest and a thick orange-red bill, and nothing else is that willing to sit on a platform of sunflower seed. At 8.7 in (22 cm) it is a substantial bird, noticeably bigger than a house finch and about the length of a red-bellied woodpecker.
The female is the one people report as an unknown bird. She is warm buff-brown with red edging in the crest, wings and tail, and she keeps the black face and the heavy red-orange bill. Once you have seen the bill, she is unmistakable, and that bill is the mark to use, not the color.
Tanagers are redder than cardinals and hardly ever land on a seed feeder. A male summer tanager is rosy red all over including the wings, with a large pale bill and no crest. A male scarlet tanager is a jolt of scarlet with jet black wings and tail, and in fall he molts to greenish yellow while keeping the black wings, which is a genuinely confusing plumage. Both eat insects and fruit, so if one visits your yard it will be at a birdbath, a fruit feeder or a berry shrub. Females of both are yellow to olive with no red at all.
In the deserts of southern Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas, add the pyrrhuloxia. It is a cardinal-shaped bird in gray, with red on the face, the crest tip, the wings, the tail and a stripe down the center of the breast. The clincher is the bill: short, deep, strongly curved and pale yellow, quite unlike the cardinal's straighter red-orange cone. Female cardinal and pyrrhuloxia overlap in range and in general impression, and the bill is what separates them.
Red on the front end only: the finches#
This is where the real work is, because house finches are everywhere and purple finches turn up in winter looking like a better version of the same bird. The house finch and purple finch profiles carry the full comparison, but the short version is a shape and a boundary.
| Feature | House finch, male | Purple finch, male | Cassin's finch, male |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extent of red | Forehead, eyebrow, throat, upper breast and rump | Washed over head, back, breast and rump | Brightest on a peaked crown, paler on the nape and back |
| Cap and cheek | Plain brown, clearly separate from the red | Colored like the rest of the head | Crown distinctly redder than the rest |
| Flanks | Bold blurry brown streaks | Clean or washed pink, essentially unstreaked | Crisp fine streaks |
| Bill | Upper edge visibly curved | Straight edged, longer | Straight sided, sharply pointed |
| Tail | Longer, shallow notch | Short, deeply notched | Notched |
| Habitat | Towns, suburbs, parking lots, all year | Conifer and mixed woods, at feeders mainly in winter | Mountain conifer forest, West only |
Two northern finches round out the group and both are irruptive, meaning they appear in numbers some winters and are entirely absent in others. The common redpoll is a small, finely streaked finch with a neat red patch on the forehead, a black chin and a tiny yellow conical bill, and males add a rose wash across the breast. The pine grosbeak is at the other end of the size scale: a plump, long-tailed, slow-moving finch with rosy red over the head and body, gray flanks, two white wingbars and a stubby, strongly curved black bill. Females and immatures of both replace the red with yellow or bronze.
Male finch color is a diet record, not a species mark
House finch males get their red from carotenoid pigments in food eaten during molt, so individuals range from deep red through orange to plain yellow. A yellow house finch is not a different bird and is not sick. Use the pattern of the streaking and the shape of the bill instead.
Red heads on black and white bodies: the woodpeckers#
Woodpecker red is the most misreported color in backyard birding, because almost every woodpecker in North America has some red on the head and the names are actively misleading. Nearly everyone who reports a red-headed woodpecker has seen a red-bellied woodpecker, which is a much more common feeder bird.
| Species | Length | Where the red is | Body |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red-bellied woodpecker | 9.4 in (24 cm) | A band from the bill over the crown and down the nape on males, nape only on females | Finely barred black and white back, pale gray-buff face and underparts, faint red wash low on the belly that you will rarely see |
| Red-headed woodpecker | 8.5 in (22 cm) | The whole head and throat, solid crimson, sharply cut off at the shoulders | Black back, clean white underparts, large white patches on the inner wing. Juveniles have brown heads |
| Downy woodpecker | 6.3 in (16 cm) | A small red patch on the back of the head, males only | Black and white checkered, tiny stubby bill |
| Hairy woodpecker | 9.3 in (24 cm) | A small red patch on the back of the head, males only | Like a downy but larger, with a bill nearly as long as the head is wide |
| Northern flicker | 12.5 in (32 cm) | A red nape crescent in the East, or red malar stripe and red wing linings in the West | Brown barred back, black chest crescent, spotted belly; often on the ground eating ants |
| Acorn woodpecker | 8.3 in (21 cm) | Red crown patch on a clown-like black, white and cream face | Western oak country, stores acorns in granary trees |
The two to keep straight are the red-headed and the red-bellied. Say it as a rule: if you can see gray or buff on the face, it is a red-bellied. If the head is one uninterrupted block of red with a hard edge where it meets the black back, it is a red-headed. Size does not help much here, and neither does the belly, since the red-bellied's namesake belly wash is usually invisible in the field. The downy and hairy are separated from each other by the bill-to-head ratio, covered in the woodpecker identification guide.
A red patch on an otherwise dark bird#
A male red-winged blackbird is glossy black with a scarlet shoulder patch edged in yellow, and the amount of red he shows is under his control. A displaying male on a cattail flares the whole epaulet. The same bird feeding quietly on your platform may cover it completely and show nothing but a thin yellow line, which is why people report an all-black bird with a yellow stripe. The bill is long and sharply pointed, unlike any finch.
Two more birds get filed under red and should not be. A male rose-breasted grosbeak is black and white with a clean red triangle on the chest and a huge pale bill. A red-breasted nuthatch has rusty orange underparts, not red, along with a black cap and a white eyebrow. Rufous sides on an eastern towhee or spotted towhee are also brown-orange rather than red, and a male rufous hummingbird is copper-orange with a throat that flashes red-orange only when the light hits it directly.
The look-alikes worth learning#
| Pair | Can you separate them at a feeder? | What settles it |
|---|---|---|
| House finch and purple finch, males | Yes, with a clear view | Where the red stops and whether the flanks are streaked. House finch red is a bib on a brown bird; purple finch red is a wash over everything |
| House finch and purple finch, females | Only with a good look at the face | Purple has a bold white eyebrow and dark cheek patch, house is blank-faced. In flat light at range, record it as unidentified |
| Purple finch and Cassin's finch, females | Usually not | A Mountain West problem that defeats experienced observers. Bill shape and the crispness of the undertail streaking are the only handles |
| Red-bellied and red-headed woodpecker | Yes, easily | Gray or buff visible on the face means red-bellied. A solid crimson hood means red-headed |
| Female cardinal and female pyrrhuloxia | Yes, on the bill | Cardinal bill is red-orange and straighter; pyrrhuloxia bill is yellow, stubby and strongly curved. Ranges overlap only in the desert Southwest |
| Scarlet and summer tanager, males | Yes | Black wings and tail on the scarlet, all red including the wings on the summer |
| Common redpoll and hoary redpoll | Usually not | A genuinely contested pair even among specialists, and the two are now often treated as one species. Do not agonize over it |
Which red birds actually come to feeders#
Several of the birds above will never eat your seed, which is useful to know before you buy anything for them.
| Species | At feeders? | What brings it in |
|---|---|---|
| Northern cardinal | Yes, reliably | Black oil and striped sunflower, safflower, on a hopper or platform with a wide perch |
| House finch | Yes, constantly | Sunflower hearts, black oil sunflower, nyjer |
| Purple finch | Yes, in winter and mostly in irruption years | Black oil sunflower at a tube or hopper |
| Common redpoll | Yes, in irruption winters | Nyjer and sunflower hearts |
| Pine grosbeak | Occasionally, in the North | Sunflower on a platform, plus fruiting crabapples and mountain ash |
| Red-bellied woodpecker | Yes | Suet, peanuts, sunflower |
| Red-headed woodpecker | Sometimes, where it still occurs | Suet, peanuts, cracked corn, and dead wood left standing |
| Red-winged blackbird | Yes, in flocks that can overwhelm a feeder | Mixed seed and cracked corn on the ground |
| Summer and scarlet tanager | Rarely | Fruit, jelly, mealworms and above all water; not seed |
| Pyrrhuloxia | Yes, in the desert Southwest | Sunflower and mixed seed on a platform |
| Vermilion flycatcher | No | Open perches over short grass and a water feature; it eats flying insects |
A red bird with crusted eyes is a hygiene problem
House finches are the species most affected by mycoplasmal conjunctivitis, and a red-headed finch with swollen or closed eyes at your feeder means the feeder is spreading it. Take everything down for one to two weeks and clean it, following house finch eye disease and how to clean a bird feeder.
Region and season#
Cardinals are resident year round wherever they occur and have been expanding north for decades, so a red bird in a January snowstorm in the East is almost always a cardinal. Redpolls and pine grosbeaks are boreal irruptives whose southward movements track cone and seed crops rather than cold, which means two blank winters followed by a spectacular one is normal and says nothing about your feeders. Tanagers are summer birds that arrive with the insect flush in late spring. Pyrrhuloxias and vermilion flycatchers barely leave the Southwest at all.
One more habit is worth building: check the female before you commit. Red birds are the group where the sexes look least alike, and a yard almost always holds both. Female cardinals, female house finches, female tanagers and female red-winged blackbirds are brown, yellow or streaked, and people frequently count them as separate unknown species. If you see a brown bird feeding calmly alongside a red one of the same size and shape, you are almost certainly looking at a pair.
Check what is plausible where you live in the regional guides or run the feeder bird finder, and if you want more red in the yard specifically, attracting cardinals and attracting finches cover the food and cover that actually work. From here, the sibling guides are small brown birds, yellow birds, blue birds and black birds, and every species named above has a full profile in the bird guide.
Frequently asked questions#
What is the red bird at my feeder?
In the eastern two thirds of North America, a fully red bird with a crest and a thick orange bill is a male northern cardinal. A smaller streaky brown bird with red only on the head, throat and upper chest is a male house finch. Those two account for the large majority of red bird sightings at feeders.
How do I tell a house finch from a purple finch?
Look at where the red stops and whether the flanks are streaked. A house finch has red on the forehead, eyebrow, throat and upper breast with a brown cap behind it, and heavy blurry brown streaks down the sides. A purple finch looks dipped in raspberry over the whole head, back and breast, with clean unstreaked flanks and a shorter, more deeply notched tail.
Why is my house finch orange or yellow instead of red?
Because male house finch color comes from carotenoid pigments in food eaten while the feathers were growing. A bird that molted on a poor carotenoid diet comes out orange or yellow. It is the same species, it is healthy, and females generally prefer the reddest males but do pair with the drab ones.
Is a red-bellied woodpecker the same as a red-headed woodpecker?
No, and the names cause endless trouble. A red-bellied woodpecker has a red band running from the bill over the crown and down the nape, with a pale gray-buff face and a black and white barred back. A red-headed woodpecker has an entirely crimson head, a plain black back, clean white underparts and big white wing patches.
Do tanagers come to bird feeders?
Very rarely for seed. Summer and scarlet tanagers eat insects and fruit, so they turn up at oranges, grape jelly, mealworms and, most reliably, water. A birdbath with moving water in a wooded yard is the best chance most people have of getting a close look at one.
Where did my redpolls and pine grosbeaks go?
Probably nowhere you can influence. Both are irruptive boreal finches that move south only when the northern seed and cone crop fails, so they may fill your feeders one winter and be entirely absent for the next two. Their absence is a fact about the boreal forest, not about your feeder setup.