Our Disappearing Birds: The Red-Headed Woodpecker

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birding, Birds, Red-Headed Woodpecker, Sky Meadows State Park

The Red-Headed Woodpecker, a checkerboard-patterned woodpecker, was once so common in the central to eastern United States that orchard owners and farmers paid bounties on them. According to allaboutbirds.org, in 1840 Audubon once reported that 100 of these stunning birds were shot from a single cherry tree in a single day.

Though they continued to be abundant to common through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the loss of nut-producing trees and the decline of mature forests with dead snags led to significant declines in their numbers. Scientists estimate that their population has declined over 70% since 1966. This decline has accelerated in recent years. Partners in Flights estimates a loss from 2,500,000 birds in 2004 to 1,200,00 birds in 2012.

Now the Red-Headed Woodpecker is uncommon and local in many areas of its historical range. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) identifies the Red-Headed Woodpecker on its Red List as Near Threatened. Currently, Partners in Flight lists them as a common bird in serious decline and they are included in the 2014 State of the Birds Watch List that identifies birds most in danger of extinction without serious conservation efforts.

It is a rare treat to see Red-Heads in many areas of the Mid-Atlantic States, but they tend to congregate in colonies and fortunately, there is one such colony that calls a grove of mature oak trees in a state park in Virginia that was once a plantation home. It is not unusual to see ten or more Red-Heads at a single time sitting along the edge of this grove of trees.

Red-Heads are unusual woodpeckers for several reasons. They are skilled at catching insects on the fly, spotting them from a perch on a snag, branch or fencepost. They also cache food by wedging it in cracks, crevices, or even their own woodpecker holes. They store live grasshoppers by wedging them so tightly in crevices in tree bark that the grasshopper cannot escape. They also cover their caches with bark or wood pieces.

What can be done to help the Red-Headed Woodpeckers? Audubon.org identifies the following best management practices to support this species:

* Focus on the creation and maintenance of groves of trees with multiple dead snags needed for roosting and foraging.

* Prescribed burning and understory thinning to create the open forest stands that Red-Heads prefer, presumably for increased fly-catching opportunities.

Sources of information for this post:

http://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/documents/final_red-headed_woodpecker_conservation_plan_10-31-2014.pdf

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-headed_Woodpecker/lifehistory

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/red-headed-woodpecker

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/bfl/speciesaccts/rehwoo.html

Red-Headed Woodpecker

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birding, Birds, Red-Headed Woodpecker, Sky Meadows State Park

I had the great joy of stopping at Sky Meadows State Park in Virginia and watched at least a dozen Red-Headed Woodpeckers hunting for grasshoppers in the fields adjacent the grove of oak trees in which they are nesting. They would sit perched on the farm fences, waiting for some poor, unassuming grasshopper to flit by. They would then dart out, snatch the unsuspecting insect, hover in place for a moment, and then return to their perch on the fence to dine on their snack.

It is estimated that Red-Headed Woodpecker populations have declined by over 70% since 1966. The declines are attributed to habitat loss and to changes and declines in their food sources (for example American Chestnuts were once a primary food source for the Red-Headed Woodpecker).

Remodeling a Summer Home

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birding, Birds, Northern Flicker, Sky Meadows State Park

While walking through Sky Meadows State Park in search of what had been for me the elusive Red-Headed Woodpecker, I came upon a Northern Flicker excavating a hole in a locust tree for use as his home. They widen a hole to three inches in diameter and thirteen-sixteen inches deep, which they line the floor of the hole with wood chips for their nest. This Flicker would work on the outside ‘door’ for awhile before sticking his head inside the hole to work on the inside hole for a bit, before starting again on the outside of the hole.

Red-Headed Woodpecker

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birding, Birds, Red-Headed Woodpecker, Sky Meadows State Park

Driving home from a long weekend spent in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, I stopped at Sky Meadow State Park. I was hoping to see a Red-Headed Woodpecker. The rangers let me know that until last summer, a particular grove of trees was home to the largest population of Red-Headed Woodpeckers on the East Coast. Then, last summer, the acorn crop in that particular grove of trees failed. As the summer wore on, they saw fewer and fewer of the birds. No one had seen a Red-Headed Woodpecker there all winter. They anticipated the woodpeckers returning with the spring, but no one had seen them yet. Still I walked through the grove of trees. I saw Northern Flickers and Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, but no Red-Heads. Finally, I walked back to the parking lot and got in my car to drive home. As I drove out of the park, I gave a final glance at the grove of trees, and there, on a fence post adjacent to the grove, sat a Red-Headed Woodpecker. Another Red-Head was flying from tree to tree in the grove. Needless to say, I was more than happy to drive back to the ranger’s station to report that the Red-Heads are back!!