Red-bellied Woodpecker

Melanerpes carolinus

Order PICIFORMES - Family PICIDAE - Subfamily Picinae

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

The most common woodpecker in the Southeast, the Red-bellied Woodpecker is a familiar sight at bird feeders and in backyards. Yes, its belly is covered in a light red wash. But this woodpecker is easier to spot by the red on the back and top of its head.

Cool Facts

• The Red-bellied Woodpecker competes vigorously for nest holes with other woodpeckers, in one case even dragging a Red-cockaded Woodpecker from a nest cavity and killing it. But it is often evicted from nest holes by the European Starling. In some areas, half of all Red-bellied Woodpecker nesting cavities are taken over by starlings.

• Stores food in cracks and crevices of trees and fence posts. The woodpecker does not appear to defend its caches from other birds or mammals.

• The male Red-bellied Woodpecker has a longer bill and a longer, wider tongue tip than the female. These adaptations may allow the male to reach deeper into furrows to extract prey and may allow the sexes to divide up the resources in one area.

Description

• Size: 24 cm (9 in)
• Wingspan: 33-42 cm (13-17 in)
• Weight: 56-91 g (1.98-3.21 ounces)

• Medium to large-sized woodpecker.
• Red hood from top of head to back of neck.
• Back barred black and white.

• Rump white with some barring.
• Face and underparts pale gray to whitish.
• White patch at base of primaries obvious in flight.
• Tail feathers black, with white barred central and outer tail feathers.
• Bill black.
• Eyes dark.
• Legs and feet dark gray.

Sex Differences

Male with red hood extending to forehead, female with red nape only.

Immature

Immature has little or no red on head and a horn-colored bill.

Similar Species

• Golden-fronted Woodpecker looks similar except it has a golden orange nape (red crown on males), nasal tufts, and black central tail feathers.
• Gila Woodpecker has brown nape; does not overlap in range with red-bellied.
• Red-headed Woodpecker is red on entire head, neck, face, and throat; has bold black and white patches, not barring.

Sound

Call: a loud raspy "kwirr." Also shorter "cha" notes.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Resident from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts southward to Gulf Coast, westward to eastern Texas and extreme eastern Colorado.

Winter Range

Not considered migratory, but at the northern edge of range may move farther south in very cold winters.

Habitat

Lives in a variety of dry or damp forests (deciduous or pine) and in suburban areas.

Food

Arthropods, seeds, fruit, sap. Occasionally lizards, tree frogs, small fish, nestlings, birds, and eggs.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans insects from bark, probes and excavates into dead wood, scales bark, hawks for flying insects, hangs upside down for berries.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest in hole in dead tree or dead limb. Eggs laid on wood chips left from excavation.

Egg Description

Color: White.

Size: 22.17-28.34 mm x 17.04-21.19 mm
(.87-1.12 in x .67-.93 in)

Incubation period: 12 days.

Clutch Size

Usually 4 eggs. Range: 2-6.

Condition at Hatching

Naked and helpless with eyes closed.
Chicks fledge in 24-27 days.

Conservation Status

The Red-bellied Woodpecker has extended its breeding range north over the last 100 years. Populations are increasing throughout most of the range.

Other Names

Pic à ventre roux (French)

Sources used to construct this page:

Shackleford, C. E., R. E. Brown, and R. N. Conner. 2000. Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus). In The Birds of North America, No. 500 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.