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.

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.

Happy BirthDay

Today, April 22, is Earth Day. It's a special day where we show our appreciation for the natural world and are more aware of the things that we need to do to preserve it.On Earth Day 2007 I began the Ecobirder Blog. During the past six years there have been good times and bad times, there have been days where I could not wait to share pictures and posts and days where it took almost every thing that I had to write a post for the day. During all this time many of you have visited often and left comments and encouragements for which I would like to thank you. With out you this blog would not be here. It has become kind of a tradition to share pics from the calendars that I make each year on this special day. So keeping with tradion here are the pictures from the 2013 Ecobirder Calendar. 

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

Ferruginous pygmy owl San Miguelito Ranch, Tx

 Altamira oriole at Bentsen State Park, Tx

Sandhill crane colt Necedah NWR, Wi

Western grebe Bosque del Apache, NM

Cabbage white butterfly River Bend Nature Center, MN

Red-headed woodpeckers Necedah NWR, Wi.

Gold-fronted woodpecker  Santa Ana NWR, Texas.

 Pied-billed grebe Crex Meadows, Wi

Black Bear Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary, MN

 Gulf Fritillary Santa Ana NWR, Texas.

 Sandhill cranes Boque del Apache, MN

Northern Saw-whet owl Dodge Nature Center, MN

Thanks for a great year!

Natural Redhead

Tuesday Tweets

 The red-headed woodpecker is a declining species in North America. The primary reason for their decline is habitat loss. The red-head does not bore into trees in search of insects, instead they eat a mix of nuts, seeds, fruit and insects which they catch in the air. They are also pretty unique in that they are one of few woodpeckers that cache extra food for times when food is less available. Because of this they look for a habitat with a lot of old wood, which they use for caching. Unfortunately many people are quick to remove dead growth because of fire danger which limits the amount of preferable habitat which is available.

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets! To join in the fun just post a photo of a bird and then link it by here by using the handy dandy link below. Then make sure you visit other sites to do a little bird watching.

Red-headed Woodpecker

Immature Red-headed Woodpecker

Tuesday Tweets

The red-headed woodpecker is one species of bird that has been in decline in recent years. Their population has declined almost 90% since the late 1960's. Most of that has taken place in the last 30 years with an average decline of 4.6% per year. One of the main reasons is habitat loss. Red-headed woodpeckers prefer to live in deciduous woodlands with a lot of dead trees and snags. Many of these woodlands have been cleared for farming or development and the woodlands that remain are often cleared of dead trees. Red-headed woodpeckers also need clear space between the trees. Unlike most woodpeckers they get most of their protein by catching insects in mid air. In the past wild fires would help to clear out the underbrush leaving perfect habitat for the woodpeckers but with today's means of fire suppression much of their remaining habitat has become over grown making it difficult for them to find much of their food.

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets. To join in the fun, just post a photo of a bird on your blog then come here and enter your information in the inlinz tool down below. Don't forget to put a link back to here on your blog and the pretty little banner photo. Then visit all of the sites that participate to see a lot of cool bird pics.

Red-headed Woodpecker

This weekend I decided to drive over to the middle of Wisconsin to Visit the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. I try to go to Necedah a couple of times each year. The primary reason that I go is to photograph the endangered Karner blue butterfly but unfortunately I was a little late for that this year. However Necedah also has a healthy population of nesting red-headed woodpecker which I also like to photograph.

Although not endangered there are many people who are concerned about the continued existence of the red-headed woodpecker. In the past forty years their population has declined by 90%. Most of this is due to habitat loss. Red-headed woodpecker live in sparsely populated woodlands with an abundance of dead wood around. The dead wood is important because they drill holes into it for nesting cavities. They also use bored holes to cache food. Unlike many other species of woodpeckers most of their food comes from seeds or insects that they catch in flight. Since much of this food source is not available in the winter time it is important for the red-heads to cache food during the summer when it is plentiful. So as people remove dead wood because they deem it unsightly or are worried about fires, they also remove available habitat for the red-headed woodpecker. Fortunately there are still areas like Necedah where these birds can find a home I just wish that there were more places.

Necedah National Wildlife Refuge

With the Independence Day holiday last week I had a three day weekend so I decided to head over to central Wisconsin and shoot in the Necedah NWR for a couple of days. This was my first opportunity to get a look at the new visitors center and it is very impressive. Inside is a store, educational displays, offices, an info desk, small theatre and a nice sitting room complete with a fireplace. You can see from the picture above that much of the building is powered by renewable solar power.
One of the things that Necedah is famous for is their work with the endangered whooping crane. It is dangerous to have the majority of the remaining population of whoopers all in one area. Disease or natural disaster could destroy the entire population adding another extinct bird to the list. So the staff at Necedah has been working with a number of other organizations to set up a second migrating population. Unfortunately the only crane that I spotted over the weekend was a sandhill crane.
There were a lot of young birds that had recently fledged. I found a young kingbird perched on a branch overhanging a small stream. I watched for a while and was rewarded as one of the parents came down to feed the youngster a plump insect.
As I watched the kingbirds feeding four river otters appeared and began to play in the stream. So I switched subjects. I think that Michelle was kind of jealous because she really likes to watch otters.
Necedah has a variety of habitats to explore. Near the new Visitors Center they have built some trails into and over the wetlands. Raised boardwalks help give visitors a good look at wildlife with out getting their feet too wet.
I also took a hike on the new boardwalk that skits a boggy area. I was hoping to get a glance and a photo of a ringed boghaunter dragonfly. Necedah is in one of the few counties in Wisconsin where this member of the emerald family can be found, the only other place to find them in the Midwest is Michigan. It was a little late in the year for the boghaunter but I did find quite a few racket-tailed emeralds.
Also near the bog trail I found several bobolink. There were two pairs that squawked at me noisily as I walked down the trail. I wonder if they were nesting near the trail and I was getting to close to the nest.
One of the birds that I always like to photograph when I go to Necedah is the red-headed woodpecker. Although they are not endangered like the whooper are their population has been decreasing over the years. The problem that they are facing is habitat lose. Red-headed woodpeckers live in a habitat that has a lot of dead trees for nesting and caching food. They also require some space between the trees. This type of habitat has become scarce and the red-head population has declined as a result. Fortunately Necedah still has a lot of area that fits the bill and it is quite easy to see the red-heads flitting between the trees.
On my way out of the refuge I saw another youngster crossing the road. Mom was already in the woods on the side of the road but junior slowed down to take a look at the curios shiny creature on the road in front of him.

A True Red-head

There are numerous species of woodpeckers that have red feathers on their head but there is only one truly red-head. The red-headed woodpecker is a mid sized woodpecker found in the eastern portions of North America. Their range runs from southern Canada in the north down to the Gulf Coast and from the Rocky Mountains east to the Atlantic Ocean. Birds that live in the northern third of the range usually migrate south in the winter in search of food. I photographed these red-heads at the Necedah NWR in central Wisconsin.

Red-headed woodpeckers are cavity nesters. Both male and female will work on excavating a cavity in a dead tree or snag preferably one with no bark left on it, or use an existing cavity. The cavity is typically lined with wood chips making a bed for the 4 to 8 eggs that the female will lay one egg per day. Both male and female will incubate the eggs, which takes about two weeks, and care for the chicks, which fledge around 27 to 28 days after they hatch. Both adults will also aggressively defend the nest and territory. They will often chase away other birds, not just other woodpeckers, and have been known to destroy nests or eggs of other birds nesting in the area. In parts of the range where there is a longer summer the adults may chase away the fledglings after they hatch and start a second brood.

Red-headed woodpeckers are omnivores. They eat seeds, berries, fruit, nuts, acorns, eggs, chicks, mice and insects. Instead of boring into trees in search of insects, like most other woodpeckers, red-heads are more often to catch insects in the air or on the ground, especially grasshoppers. Red-heads are one of only four species of woodpeckers that are known to cache food. They will often tuck an acorn into a hole in a dead snag or wedge a live grasshopper in the crevice of a dead tree. They will then frequently cover their cache up with bark, which makes them unique in the world of woodpeckers. Since they rely heavily on dead trees for nesting cavities and cache locations their population has been in decline as people remove dead trees for ascetic reasons. Their population fluctuated positively, at times, when the number of dead trees increased, such as when North America went through the Dutch Elm epidemic. In the long run, however, their population has been on the decline, decreasing 50% since the late 1960's. This is mostly due to habitat loss and nesting site competition from non-native species.

Red-headed Woodpecker

Congrats Wisconsin

Last nights Super Bowl was a great game. I was very happy that our neighbors to the east came up victorious. To honor their victory I decided to feature one of my favorite Wisconsin refuges in today's post.
Necedah NWR is located in central Wisconsin. It is about an hour west of Madison, Wisconsin and about 3 hours south east of the Twin Cities, where I live. Our first trip to Necedah was back in 2007. I had been doing some reading about butterflies and found that Necedah was a good place to see the endangered Karner blue. Unfortunately by the time we made arrangements to go there, Michelle accompanied me on this trip, it was October which is a bit late for the Karner blues. We did fall in love with, and photograph the numerous red-headed woodpeckers living in the refuge. The head on this immature bird was just beginning to turn red.

In 2008 we decided to go back to Necedah but this time in June. We were able to photograph our first Karner blues on that trip but we did not see as many red-headed woodpeckers as we did in the fall of 2007. So I decided to head back, this time on my own, at the beginning of October. On the second trip not only did I get my red-head fix but I also was astounded when a pair of endangered whooping cranes flew directly over head.

In 2009 I made two trips back out to Necedah, one with Michelle and one on my own. This eastern tiger swallowtail was very cooperative that June, posing for many pictures on brightly colored flowers. On the June trip we also spotted a porcupine as it crossed the road, which was very exciting.

In 2010 I repeated my now traditional two trips, this year both of them on my own. I added several new species to my Necedah list including several new dragonflies and a bobolink. I also photographed my favorites including the red-headed woodpeckers and the Karner blue butterfly, as seen above.