Red-Bellied-Woodpecker-2

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

The Red-Bellied Woodpecker’s latin name Melanerpes carolinus. It is found all over North America but especially eastern North America. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker’s preferred habitat is open forests, forest edges, clearings, groves of trees, farm country, swamps, and riverside woods. They breed in late winter and nest between March and early May. Although the Red-Bellied Woodpecker is considered a non-migratory bird, there is movement south from the north during the breeding season. Their population status is of least concern. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker can be found on Coal Creek Farm all year round.

The most common Red Bellied Woodpecker call is a shrill, rolling kwirr or churr given by both sexes. Another Red Bellied Woodpecker sound you may hear is a gruff, coughing cha cha cha sounding through the woods, usually a contact call between mates, or a throaty growl exchanged when birds are close together.  Their diet consists of insects, fruit, mast, seeds, lizards, frogs, small fish, and eggs. Red-Bellied Woodpeckers store food in cracks and crevices of trees and fence posts. They build their nests in dead trees (hardwoods or pines), dead limbs of live trees, and fence posts. The same female Red Bellied Woodpecker and male Red Bellied Woodpecker may nest in the same tree year after year, but typically excavate anew cavity each year, often placing the new one beneath the previous year’s nest. The female lays 2-6 eggs at time, and after a 12-day incubation period, the baby Red-Bellied Woodpeckers are born. The babies stay in the nest for 24-27 days, after which time the juvenile Red Bellied Woodpeckers leave the nest.

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