From behind this bird looks a lot like a pileated woodpecker, but when you see its face and belly you know it’s something different.

Female crimson-crested woodpeckers (above) aren’t as colorful as the males.

Native to Panama and northern South America, the crimson-crested woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) resembles a pileated woodpecker but its closest North American relative is the ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis), a probably-extinct bird that was reported once in Arkansas in 2004 but never seen again.

It’s like a bird from home, but not the one we thought.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the images to see the originals)

p.s. At home in Pittsburgh, trying to catch up.