Tag Archives: red-headed woodpecker

Red-headed woodpeckers more uncommon than some of their kin

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Photo by Pixabay • The red-headed woodpecker is accurately named for its entirely red head. Male and female red-headed woodpeckers are identical in appearance, but young birds lack the red head.

Some readers asked for help in determining the identity of some birds that they have encountered. I tried to offer some insight into each query.

First, Lynda Carter in the Lamar community of Washington County emailed me recently with a question about a possible sighting of a red-headed woodpecker.

“I know they are uncommon and I did not get my binoculars on the bird,” Lynda wrote. “I saw the bird land in a large open-crowned oak after hearing a call very like (a) red-bellied (woodpecker) but different somehow.”

Lynda noted that she could see a lot of red on head and when the bird flew across her pasture to a pine tree, she could see big blocks of black and white in the plumage.

“I shared my sighting with my sister who lives up the mountain from me and she thought she spotted the same bird on a telephone pole in her yard a few days later,” Lynda said.

Lynda added that she and her sister live on the end of Embreeville Mountain. “We are interested in your thoughts concerning our mystery bird,” she wrote.

I responded to Lynda with my absolute confidence that she and her sister did see a red-headed woodpecker. Here are a few reasons for my belief in the identification she came up with.

The large patches of black and white are trademark characteristics of a red-headed woodpecker. The black is actually almost a glossy blue-black.

Of course, the entirely red head also separates the aptly-named red-headed woodpecker from all other members of the family in the region.

She and her sister also live in a section of Washington County near some known locations for finding red-headed woodpeckers.

Photo by USFWS • The red-headed woodpecker is an easily identified bird for anyone getting a good look.

It’s also spring. Red-headed woodpeckers are partly migratory, so her sighting could have involved a migrating bird. I’ve seen several red-headed woodpeckers in the spring in some surprising locations over the years.

We corresponded a bit more and Lynda shared more about the birds around her home.

“I do live in a great spot for birding,” she wrote.  “We have open pasture, wooded gullies and the mountain behind us. Cherokee National Forest is my neighbor to the south and the Nolichucky River is just down the road.”

Lynda hosts nesting wood thrushes that return to the same open wooded patch behind her house. “I just love hearing their song in early morning hours and again in the evening,” she wrote.

She also wrote that she has seen more scarlet tanagers, which is always a thrill, in the last year or two.

“I have had male and female rose-breasted grosbeak at my bin feeder,” she added.

She has recently heard Eastern meadowlarks, red-eyed vireo and ovenbird. She also provides several nest boxes currently occupied by Eastern bluebirds and tree swallows.

The red-headed woodpecker and its relative, the red-bellied woodpecker, belong to a genus of tree-clinging birds known as Melanerpes. The term, translated from Latin, means “black creeper.” Indeed, many of the two dozen members of the Melanerpes genus have an extensive amount of black feathers in their plumage. Other members of the genus include woodpeckers from the Caribbean, as well as from Central and South American. Some of them have quite colorful names, such as yellow-tufted woodpecker, golden-cheeked woodpecker and the accurately named beautiful woodpecker, a native of Colombia.

The red-bellied is a common bird in the region, but some effort or simple good luck is needed to find red-headed woodpeckers. These woodpeckers, which often form family flocks, have localized populations that shift from year to year.

One reason the red-headed woodpecker may be less common than its cousin relates to its fondness for hawking for flying insects along roadsides. The woodpeckers are frequently struck by cars when swooping after their winged prey. Historically, the American chestnut and beech trees also provided much of the mast crops consumed by these birds. With the extermination of the chestnut and the scarcity of beech in some locations, the red-headed woodpecker now depends on oaks and acorns. In fact, this woodpecker is rarely encountered outside of woodlands offering an abundance of oak trees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is6MB_8-7ro

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Ed Wells, who lives in Nebo, North Carolina, near Lake James, emailed me recently and presented me with another identification challenge.

“I enjoy reading your feature each week,” Wells wrote.  “You always inform and teach me.”

He  also attached some photographs of a bird that flew into the side of his house in 2021.

“I have not been able to make a positive ID,” he said.  “It appeared to be a small shorebird with a straight bill of medium length. Wing span was probably 10 inches or less and perhaps about the same from bill to tail.”

“I moved the stunned bird out of the cold wind and placed it on some mulch,” Ed wrote. “It eventually recovered and flew away.”

Ed also shared that while boating on the lake recently, he saw a bird that he believes might be the same species as his mystery bird. The shorebird was perched on rocks near the waterline.

“My boat startled it and it flew rapidly away,” he added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD6nQm1CFKI

Based on his photos, the best I could do was determine the bird was some sort of “peep,” which is a birding nickname for a group of small- to medium-sized sandpipers.

I speculated that the bird might have been a stilt sandpiper, but I also consulted Rick Knight, a veteran birder with much more experience with shorebirds.

“The bill looks too short for stilt sandpiper,” Rick concluded. He said that he would lean toward the bird being a least sandpiper or pectoral sandpiper.

Many shorebirds have been migrating through the region in recent weeks. During the recent five-county Spring Bird Count conducted by the Elizabethton Bird Club, counters found several shorebird species, including least sandpiper, pectoral sandpiper, semipalmated sandpiper, spotted sandpiper, solitary sandpiper, lesser yellowlegs greater yellowlegs and killdeer.

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Have questions about birds? Email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com. Feel free to make comments and share observations, too.

Woodpecker’s ‘red belly’ often obscured from view, but ‘redhead’ name often goes to wrong bird

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In recent posts I have discussed the smallest and largest of the woodpeckers in the region, as well as focused a spotlight on the oddball yellow-bellied sapsucker and the medium-sized Northern flicker. This week’s post will focus on one of the most common, although ridiculously misnamed, woodpeckers, as well as one of its rather uncommon relatives.

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Photo by Ken Thomas                                            Just as acrobatic as its relatives, the red-bellied woodpecker ranks as a popular visitor to feeders. This photograph shows off the splash of red on the belly that gives this particular woodpecker its name.

Among the woodpecker family, the red-bellied and red-headed woodpeckers are close cousins, belonging to a genus of those tree-clinging birds known as Melanerpes. The term, translated from Latin, means “black creeper.” Indeed, many of the two dozen members of the Melanerpes genus have an extensive amount of black feathers in their plumage. Other members of the genus include woodpeckers from the Caribbean, as well as from Central and South American. Some of them have quite colorful names, such as yellow-tufted woodpecker, golden-cheeked woodpecker and the accurately named beautiful woodpecker, a native of Colombia.

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Photo by Bryan Stevens                                  When climbing the trunks of trees, red-bellied woodpeckers don’t often reveal the faint reddish wash on the feathers covering their stomachs. This photo, however, is an exception and shows the trait that gives this medium-sized woodpecker its common name.

The red-bellied woodpecker is one of the most widespread members of this genus with a range that extends from southern Canada to northeastern Mexico, as well as the eastern United States as far south as Florida and as far west as Texas. A century ago the red-bellied woodpecker was almost exclusively a southeastern bird, but it has expanded its range northward and westward considerably in the last 100 years. Its southern origins are hinted at in its scientific name of Melanerpes carolinus, which can be roughly translated as “black creeper of the Carolinas.”

It’s also named for a characteristic of its appearance that is not particularly prominent and not easy to observe. The faint tint of red that tinges the white belly feathers is extremely difficult to observe when this woodpecker is hitching up the trunk of a large tree. Because males, and females to a certain extent, have a red cap, the species has been erroneously referred to as a “red-headed woodpecker” by many casual observers. The true red-headed woodpecker, however, has an entirely red head and a plumage pattern that, considering its color trio of red, white and blue-black, is downright patriotic. The red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) is about the same size as the red-bellied woodpecker.

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Photo by Dave Menke/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service                  The uncommon red-headed woodpecker deserves its common name because it, and not the related red-bellied woodpecker, has an entirely red head.

All woodpeckers are noisy when the mood strikes them, but the red-headed and red-bellied have always struck me as rather more clamorous than some of their relatives. The most common call of the red-bellied woodpecker is a sort of rolling “churr” repeated frequently while the bird is on the move from tree to tree.

To enjoy close views of the red-bellied woodpecker, provide plenty of peanuts, sunflower seeds and suet cakes. If there are any of them in the woods nearby, they will find these food offerings in short order. All my research indicates the same is true of red-headed woodpeckers, but I’ve never observed this woodpecker at my home. I’ve seen red-headed woodpeckers in Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina, but their populations are somewhat localized. Woodlands dominated by oak trees are often inhabited by both these woodpeckers, which are fond of the acorns produced by these trees.

Female-Redbellied

Photo by Bryan Stevens           A female red-bellied woodpecker peers around a tree trunk.

One reason the red-headed woodpecker may be less common than its cousin relates to its fondness for hawking for flying insects along roadsides. The woodpeckers are frequently struck by cars when swooping after their winged prey. Historically, the American chestnut and beech trees also provided much of the mast crops consumed by these birds. With the extermination of the chestnut and the scarcity of beech in some locations, the red-headed woodpecker now depends on oaks and acorns. In fact, this woodpecker is rarely encountered outside of woodlands with an abundance of oak trees.

At feeders, red-bellied woodpeckers are prickly customers that often refuse to play nice with other birds. I’ve seen them stare down other large feeder birds, including blue jays, mourning doves and evening grosbeaks. With its large bill, the red-bellied woodpecker commands some respect.

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Photo by Bryan Stevens                                Although once considered a bird of the southeastern United States, the red-bellied woodpecker has expanded its range north and west during the past century.

Anyone who has hosted these birds knows they are a welcome visitor to any yard. Who knows? Some day I may even get a visit from the elusive red-headed woodpecker, which is the only woodpecker resident in the region to thus far avoid my yard.

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Photo by Mark Stevens     A promotional sign for Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina bears the image of a red-bellied woodpecker.

To learn more about birds and other topics from the natural world, friend Stevens on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ahoodedwarbler. He is always posting about local birds, wildlife, flowers, insects and much more. If you have a question, wish to make a comment or share a sighting, email him at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.