By Jay V. Huner
Journal Correspondent

Birds have common names and scientific names. Both names often honor real individuals. Well, when Tom Kelly told me that Miriam, his wife, was excited by a beautiful Red-headed Woodpecker in their Winn Parish backyard, I immediately wrote an article about Red-headed Woodpeckers for The Piney Woods Journal. But, when I sent the article along with Jim Johnson's image, Tom sent a note that Miriam's "redheaded" woodpecker was actually a Red-bellied Woodpecker, not a Red-headed Woodpecker!

Male Red-bellied Woodpeckers have bright reddish orange crowns and napes. Females have bright reddish orange napes. First year birds have a limited amount of reddish orange coloration on their napes. All birds have black and white checkered backs. Mature males do have some reddish coloration on their bellies, normally very hard to see unless a bird is literally in your hand. By contrast, the entire head of adult Red-headed Woodpeckers is red and their backs are black.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are amongst the most common and conspicuous birds in our Piney Woods. Native to the eastern United States, their range has extended hundreds of miles northward in the last century.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are not shy. Once you see and hear one making its rolling/chattering "chur-r-r-r-r-r-r" and a hoarse "chaw, chaw," you should notice them almost anywhere there are good numbers of medium-large trees including urban, suburban and rural settings. Red-bellies are suckers for suet and, to a lesser extent, sunflower seeds. That's surely why Miriam's Woodpecker has been so conspicuous in the Kelly's backyard.

All woodpeckers communicate with each other by pecking loudly on convenient, resonating surfaces, primarily trees and utility poles. This is called "drumming". Red-bellies are no exception and like their other woodpecker cousins, they sometimes choose to drum on metal eaves creating quite a racket especially early in the morning.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers excavate cavities in dead and dying trees and utility poles for nesting and roosting. These robin-sized birds have large, chisel-like bills and they will throw their weight around at feeders. However, the European Starling doesn't back off from a fight, especially when it wants to set up house-keeping in a woodpecker's nest cavity. I once watched a starling forcefully remove a red-belly from its nest cavity in our Cotile Lake neighborhood in rural Rapides Parish, Louisiana.

All woodpeckers have an undulating flight pattern and that of the red-belly is especially pronounced especially when it is moving amongst trees. Like the other woodpeckers, they "hitch" up and down trees and around limbs using their tails to act as fulcrums. When examined, the tail feathers are especially stiff and strong explaining how this behavior is possible.

It is too bad that Red-bellied Woodpeckers were not given a more appropriate name like Red-capped Woodpecker". However, they are beautiful, interesting birds that all of us, including Miriam Kelly can enjoy up close and personal.

Back