The story of the bird
The Red-bellied Woodpecker is one of the friendliest and most familiar birds a feeder-watcher can hang on a wall, the everyday woodpecker of the eastern oak and the backyard suet feeder. Melanerpes carolinus is a handsome, medium-sized bird marked by the fine, even black-and-white barring across its back, the pattern birders fondly call the zebra back, and the bright scarlet that runs unbroken over the crown and nape of the male. The faint rose blush on the belly that gave the bird its name is the one mark almost nobody notices; it is the red head that people know, and it is the head that carries the plate.
It is a warm, sociable bird, the one most eastern gardens hear before they see, its rolling churr coming down through the canopy. That everyday familiarity is exactly what makes it such a satisfying print: this is the bird at my feeder, on my oak, in my yard. As fine art it reads as home in a kitchen, a breakfast nook or a hallway, and it makes an easy, always-right gift for anyone with a feeder and a window they watch it from.
Rendered in a contemporary Audubon-inspired natural-history style with a soft paper-grain finish.
Full field guide: /species/red-bellied-woodpecker/.
