Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Red-headed Woodpecker

Red-headed Woodpecker
 The red-headed woodpecker is a striking woodpecker found in the eastern United States and southeast Canada. In the northern portion of their range they migrate south during the winter while in the southern portions they are year round residents.They are omnivorous. About one third of their diet comes from insects and the other two thirds is comprised of seeds and fruit. The red-headed woodpecker is one of only four species of woodpeckers that cache food. The immature below is caching an acorn so that it will have food later when times are harder.
Immature Red-headed Woodpecker Caching Food
Once the red-headed woodpecker was a common site through most of its range but over the past 50 years studies have shown that their population has declined an average of almost 3% per year.Part of this may be due to habitat loss. Red-headed woodpeckers rely heavily on dead trees. As a cavity nester dead trees provide nesting habitat. They also provide nooks and crannies for caching food. As humans began to remove  more dead trees, for aesthetic reasons and for fire prevention, this limited the red-heads habitat. Competition from other cavity nesting species has probably also contributed as well as the decrease of fruit and nut bearing trees.


13 comments:

HansHB said...

Great photos, perfect WBW post!

Roger Owen Green said...

Suddenly I have Walter Lantz stuck in my head...
ROG, ABC Wednesday team

FAB said...

Smashing views.

Karen said...

Beautiful shots, that woodpecker is so colourful.

sunshine said...

Cool bird and beautiful photos, we have some problems with woodspeckers to. The removal of old or death trees is a desaster for them.

mick said...

Beautiful birds.

Anonymous said...

Great photographs, I saw my first Red-headed Woodpecker last June and he was gorgeous!

MaR said...

I woke up to one last summer on vacation, but I didn't get to see him. Sadly to hear about their problems...

R is for...

Chrissy Brand said...

What a wonderful wildlife post!

Gattina said...

I don't know if our woodpecker has a red head, I only can hear it, never saw it !

Gattina
ABC Team

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I posted my first sighting of these birds -- but I should have borrowed your much better pictures. Just kidding of course. It was wonderful to see them and I was happy to document the sighting in my amateur way!

Mary Howell Cromer said...

Love these wonderful Woodpeckers, great images and oh my the Warbler entries...magnificent as well~

Neil said...

The red stands out beautiful photos.