Red-headed Woodpeckers
Member of the Picidae Family: Woodpeckers ... Sapsuckers ... Flickers
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Description: The Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) is a small or medium-sized woodpecker. Adults have a black back and tail with a red head and neck. Their underparts are mainly white. The wings are black with white secondaries. Non-birders often mistakenly identify the Red-bellied Woodpecker as this species.
Distribution: Their breeding habitat is open country across southern Canada and the eastern-central United States.
Once abundant, populations have seriously declined since 1966 due to increased nesting competition from starlings and removal of dead trees (used as nesting sites) from woodlands. Many Northeastern states no longer have nesting red-headed woodpeckers.
Nesting / Breeding: They nest in a cavity in a dead tree or a dead part of a tree. Northern birds migrate to the southern parts of the range; southern birds are often permanent residents.
Build Your Own Red-headed Woodpecker Bird House
Diet: These birds fly to catch insects in the air or on the ground, forage on trees or gather and store nuts. They are omnivorous, eating insects, seeds, fruits, berries and nuts.
Call / Song: They give a "tchur-tchur" call or drum on territory.
Threats: This woodpecker was formerly targeted by hunters for their brilliant red plumage as well as being considered an agricultural pest for causing damage to telephone poles. Due to this, their population decreased significantly. Another reason constituted the loss of food sources caused by the decline of beech tree and the disappearance of the Rocky Mountain grasshoppers. Nest failures occured when nests were excavated in telephone poles recently treated with creosote. The habitat of this woodpecker has been degraded by the harvesting of snags, clearcuts, agricultural development, channeling of rivers, regeneration of eastern forests, fire suppression, monoculture crops, and the loss of small orchards.
Conservation:
The Red-headed Woodpecker is listed as a vulnerable species in Canada and is listed on multiple state threatened species lists in the United States. Habitat should be managed so as to provide large forest fragments (>2 ha) with large snags for nesting and open areas for catching flying insects. In addition, selective thinning has been shown to increase the likelihood of occurrence and nesting in Ohio. Controlled fires have negative and positive impacts. While they open up the forest (providing open space for fly catching) and create snags, they can also destroy existing snags used for nesting.
The Red-headed Woodpecker is listed as a priority species in Partners in Flight's Bird Conservation Plan for the Upper Great Lakes Plain (http://www.partnersinflight.org). One of the objectives of this plan is to increase Red-headed Woodpeckers by 3% per year in USFWS Region 3 from 1980-2010 as measured by the Breeding Bird Survey.
Adapted from: Audubon Watchlist and Wikipedia.org
Related Websites: USGS ... Birds of Nova Scotia ... Oiseaux.net / French ... Mangoverde.com
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