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Red-bellied
Woodpecker
Melanerpes carolinus
[Published
in 1939: Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum
Bulletin 174: 237-245]
This showy and noisy woodpecker enjoys a wide distribution
throughout much of the eastern half of the United States, except
the most northern and northeastern states. Throughout much of this
range, it is one of the commonest and most conspicuous of
woodpeckers. Arthur H. Howell (1932) writes: "In Florida,
red-bellied woodpeckers are found chiefly in hammocks, groves, and
wet bottom-land timber, less commonly in the pine woods and the
cypress swamps. . . . These woodpeckers are not particularly shy,
and they often visit dooryards and orchards." In Texas,
according to George Finlay Simmons (1925), its favorite haunts are
"heavily timbered bottom lands or swampy woods; open
deciduous or mixed coniferous woodlands with very large trees;
heavy woods of oak and elm along river and creek bottoms; shade
trees and dead trees in town." Major Bendire (1895) says:
"Throughout the northern portions of its range it prefers
deciduous or mixed forests to coniferous, but in the south it is
apparently as common in the flat, low pine woods as in the oak
hammocks. Newly cleared lands in which numbers of girdled trees
still remain standing are favorite resorts for this as well as
other species."
Nesting.--Bendire (1895) writes:
Birds that migrate from the northern portions of their range
usually arrive on their breeding grounds rather early, sometimes
by March 20, and shortly afterwards preparations for nesting are
commenced. A suitable site is readily found in the decayed top of
some tree, or in an old stump, near a stream along the edges of a
pasture, or close to some road, and less often farther in the
center of a forest. Deciduous trees, especially the softer wooded
ones, such as elms, basswood, maple, chestnut, poplar, willow, and
sycamore, are preferred to the harder kinds, such as ash, hickory,
oak, etc. In northern Florida they nest frequently in pines.
Several excavations are often found in the same tree in which the
nest is located, and occasionally the same site, with slight
repairs, is used for more than one season. . . .
Both sexes assist in excavating the nesting site, as well as
in incubation, which lasts about fourteen days. The sites selected
are usually from 5 to 70 feet from the ground, and resemble those
of our woodpeckers in every respect, averaging about 12 inches in
depth. It takes from seven to ten days to excavate a nest, and
frequently the birds rest a week afterwards before beginning to
lay; an egg is deposited daily, and from three to five are usually
laid to a set, rarely more.
Mr. Howell (1932) says that in Florida "almost any kind of
a tree will satisfy the birds for a nesting site, but a partly
decayed stub seemingly is preferred. Where cabbage palms occur, a
dead stub of that tree is often chosen, and cavities in oaks,
cypresses, pines, and other trees are frequently utilized, the
nesting hole being anywhere from 5 to 70 feet from the ground,
usually, however, under 40 feet. Nesting begins in April and
continues until June." The only nest I ever examined in
Florida was found on April 25, 1903, on one of the Bowlegs Keys,
in the Bay of Florida; it was placed in a dead branch of a black
mangrove; the cavity was about 14 inches deep and contained four
fresh eggs.
Mr. Simmons (1925) says that in Texas this woodpecker nests in
"dead limbs of stumps of hackberry, Chinaberry, cedar elm,
pecan, and American water elm trees, particularly the rotten,
shaky, skeleton upper parts of living hackberry trees in
backyards, or in telegraph poles along city streets and
alleys." In a small village in Texas I once found a nest
containing three eggs in a fencepost near one of the houses.
Various observers have given quite different measurements of
the nesting cavity. Mr. Simmons (1925) says: "Entrance,
diameter 1.75 to 1.96. Cavity, depth 10 to 12; widest diameter
near bottom (3 above eggs) 5.25." William H. Fisher (1903)
found a nest in Maryland in which "the opening measured 2 by
2 1/4 inches and it was 5 inches from the outer edge of the hole
to the back wall."
Charles R. Stockard (1904) located a nest in Mississippi, of
which he says:
"In the spring of 1900 a nest of this species was
located in a dead cottonwood tree which stood in an open pasture.
The nest was a burrow fifteen inches deep with a perfectly
circular entrance about forty feet above the ground. A set of five
eggs was taken from it on April 24. The entrance being small, it
was found necessary to cut it larger so as to admit my hand.
Twenty-three days later the same nest contained a second set of
five eggs, slightly incubated. The enlarging of the entrance
evidently had no ill effect except for the fact that the burrow
had been deepened several inches, probably to prevent an extra
amount of light on the floor of the nest. These birds seem to
gauge the depth of their excavations more by the amount of light
admitted than from any instinct to dig a certain distance. For
example, burrows that had their entrance just below a limb or were
situated in shady woods were noticed, as a rule, to be shallower
than those located in exposed fields or on the sunny side of the
tree.
Bayard H. Christy (1931) describes a nest found in Pennsylvania
as follows:
The hole was in the top of a great primeval white oak,
standing in the bottom of a wooded ravine and at the edge of a
neglected clearing, in southern Beaver County. I had discovered it
a month or six weeks before, attracted by the calls of the bird.
The hole was drilled in a dead and vertically standing bough about
eight inches in diameter, in the very centre of the crown of the
oak, and was, I should say, about eighty feet above the ground; it
was drilled in the northern side of the bough, and beneath the
talus of a branch which had died and fallen away, leaving a
knot-hole a few inches above. The woodpeckers' hole was newly cut,
and the bark around and beneath it had been trimmed by use or by
design, so that the region about formed a tawny patch upon the
grey of the bough.
S. A. Grimes (1932) mentions four cases that have come under
his observation, in which red-bellied woodpeckers have occupied
old nests of red-cockaded woodpeckers in Florida. F. M. Phelps
(1914) mentions another similar case.
Eggs.--The red-bellied woodpecker
lays three to eight eggs, usually four or five. It is a persistent
layer; if the first set is taken, it will lay a second set within
a week or two, generally in the same nest. Mr. Stockard (1904)
reports his experience with a pair that laid four sets of eggs, 19
eggs in all, and all in the same nest.
Bendire (1895) says that "the eggs are white, mostly ovate
in shape; the shell is fine grained and rather dull looking, with
little or no gloss, resembling in this respect the eggs of Lewis's
woodpecker more than those of the red-headed species." I have
seen eggs that are elliptical-ovate in shape, and decidedly
glossy; eggs that have been incubated for some time become more
glossy than when first laid. The measurements of 50 eggs average
25.06 by 18.78 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes
measure 27.00 by 19.79, 25.15 by 23.62, 23.00
by 18.70, and 23.11 by 16.76.
Young.--The period of incubation
is said to be about 14 days. Both sexes assist in this and in the
feeding and care of the young. In the more northern portions of
its range, probably only one brood is reared in a season, but in
the south this woodpecker is said to raise two and sometimes three
broods.
Plumages.--Like other
woodpeckers, the young are hatched naked and blind, but the
juvenal plumage is acquired before the young leave the nest. In
this the young male closely resembles the adult female, but the
colors are duller, the barring is less distinct, and the white
bars are suffused with brownish white; there are indistinct dusky
shaft streaks on the chest and little or no red on the abdomen,
which, if present, is more orange or yellowish; there is no clear
red on the head, but the gray crown is sometimes suffused
centrally with dark red mixed with the gray; the hind neck is
often suffused with pinkish or yellowish. The juvenal female is
similar to the young male, but the top of the head is darker gray,
or dusky, and there is less reddish or yellowish suffusion
anywhere. The juvenal plumage is apparently worn through the first
fall; I have seen it as late as December 20, but Forbush (1927)
says that it is shed between August and October. In the first
winter plumage, there is an advance toward maturing, young males
acquiring more red on the crown and occiput, and young females on
the latter. There is probably more or less continuous molt during
winter, or a partial prenuptial molt in early spring, by which
young birds become practically indistinguishable from adults.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt late in summer and early
in fall.
Food.--Bendire (1895) says:
Its food consists of about equal proportions of animal and
vegetable matter, and it feeds considerably on the ground.
Insects, like beetles, ants, grasshoppers, different species of
flies, and larvae are eaten by them, as well as acorns, beechnuts,
pine seeds, juniper berries, wild grapes, blackberries,
strawberries, pokeberries, palmetto and sour-gum berries,
cherries, and apples. In the South it has acquired a liking for
the sweet juice of oranges and feeds to some extent on them; but
as it always returns to the same one, until this ceases to yield
any more juice, the damage done in this is slight. It has also
been observed drinking the sweet sap from the troughs in sugar
camps. The injury it commits by the little fruit it eats during
the season is fully atoned for by the numerous insects and their
larvae which it destroys at the same time, and I therefore
consider this handsome Woodpecker fully worthy of protection.
An examination of 22 stomachs by Professor Beal (1895) showed:
"Animal matter (insects) 26 percent and vegetable matter 74
percent. A small quantity of gravel was found in 7 stomachs, but
was not reckoned as food. Ants were found in 14 stomachs, and
amounted to 11 percent of the whole food. Adult beetles stand next
in importance, aggregating 7 percent of all food, while larval
beetles only reach 3 percent. Caterpillars had been taken by only
2 birds, but they had eaten so many that they amounted to 4
percent of the whole food. The remaining animal food is made up of
small quantities of bugs (Hemiptera), crickets (Orthoptera),
and spiders, with a few bones of a small tree frog found in 1
stomach taken in Florida."
The red-bellied woodpecker eats some corn, which it has been
seen to steal from corncribs and from bunches of corn hung up to
dry. Various berries have been recorded in its food, besides those
mentioned above, mulberries, elderberries, bayberries,
blueberries, and the berries of the Virginia creeper, cornel,
holly, dogwood, and poison ivy, also the seeds of ragweed and wild
sarsaparilla, hazelnuts, and pecans. N. M. McGuire (1932) saw one
feeding at the borings of the yellow-bellied sapsucker on a sugar
maple tree, driving the latter away; he "would fly at the
Sapsucker, causing him to dodge around a limb in order to keep out
of the way."
Dr. B. H. Warren (1890) first called attention to the
orange-eating habit of the red-bellied woodpecker in Florida,
where it is called the "orange sapsucker" or
"orange borer." He found on inquiry that these birds
often destroyed large numbers of oranges when they were ready for
picking and that "they damaged the orange trees by boring
holes in them and sucking the sap." He collected 26 of these
woodpeckers in one orchard, 11 of which had "fed to a more or
less extent on oranges."
William Brewster (1889) saw a red-bellied woodpecker eating the
pulp of a sweet orange at Enterprise, Fla. He says that it
attacked the orange on the ground, pecking at it in a slow and
deliberate way for several minutes. On examining the orange, he
found it to be decayed on one side. "In the sound portion
were three holes, each nearly as large as a silver dollar, with
narrow strips of peel between them. The pulp had been eaten out
quite to the middle of the fruit. Small pieces of rind were
thickly strewn about the spot. Upon searching closely I discovered
several other oranges that had been attacked in a similar manner.
All were partially decayed, and were lying on the ground. I was
unable to find any on the trees which showed any marks of the
woodpecker's bill."
Certainly the habit of eating fallen and partially decayed
oranges does no injury to the orange groves, but D. Mortimer
(1890) tells a different story:
While gathering fruit or pruning orange trees, I frequently
found oranges that had been riddled by this woodpecker, and
repeatedly saw the bird at work. I never observed it feeding upon
fallen oranges. It helped itself freely to sound fruit that still
hung on the tree, and in some instances I have found ten or twelve
oranges on one tree that had been tapped by it. Where an orange
accidentally rested on a branch in such a way as to make the
flower end accessible from above or from a horizontal direction
the woodpecker chose that spot, as through it he could reach into
all the sections of the fruit, and when this was the case there
was but one hole in the orange. But usually there were many holes
around it. It appeared that after having once commenced on an
orange, the woodpecker returned to the same one repeatedly until
he had completely consumed the pulp, and then he usually attacked
another very near to it. Thus I have found certain clusters in
which every orange had been bored, while all the others on the
tree were untouched.
The red-bellied woodpecker shares with other species, formerly
included in the genus Melanerpes, the habit of storing
acorns, nuts, insects, and other articles of food for future use.
Ben J. Blincoe (1923) writes:
The red-bellied woodpecker is a heavy feeder on beech and
oak mast. In the early fall its incessant "Cha-cha-cha"
was a familiar sound in the beech woods about Cherry Hill. I never
observed it in the act of storing beech mast though on numerous
occasions red-bellied woodpeckers were seen carrying beechnuts to
a considerable distance from the trees from which they were
secured. Very likely many of these nuts were wedged in cracks or
crevices for future use. However, in the fall of 1913, a red-belly
was seen storing the acorns from a Chinquapin Oak (Quercus
acuminata) which stood over the wood pile at Cherry Hill. The
acorns were carried, one at a time, to fence posts ranging from
twenty-five to three hundred yards distant from the oak tree, and
were generally wedged in a crack in the post, usually near the
top. One acorn was placed in a cavity caused by decay and laid
loosely on the rotten wood. As far as my observations went, but
one acorn was placed in a single post.
While Mr. Blincoe was shelling walnuts, he saw one of these
woodpeckers carry off the shells, and apparently eat the remaining
meat out of them. Several times he saw one stealing corn from his
corncrib or flying off with cherries from a tree in his garden and
sometimes carrying them to a fence post to eat. Again he watched
one eating a hole in an apple, and "found that the apple on
which it had been working bore a decayed spot near the stem and
just at the edge of it, but entirely in the solid part of the
apple, was a hole about half an inch across, and three-quarters
deep. The bottom of this cavity contained several tiny holes,
markings made by the woodpecker's mandibles. In the early winter,
frequently, a red-belly would be seen feeding on an apple that
remained on the tree, though decayed and practically dried
up."
Lester W. Smith writes to me that it seems to be a habit of the
red-bellied woodpecker in Florida to store away insects and other
food. "After digging into and capturing and insect, I see it
fly to a small hole, commonly in the trunk of the cabbage
palmetto, and place the insect in it. At a hole 5 feet from the
ground I found a male carolinus inserting the badly
mutilated body of a cockroach. A large portion of his catches or
finds he seems to prefer to hide away. A tree of small, late
tangerines was visited almost daily during the latter half of May,
and sections of pulp, taken from fruit torn open by the
mockingbird, were carried off and hidden in various places. On
June 3 I saw carolinus go to the base of banana leaves, take out a
section of pulp, and fly away with it. Examination showed other
pieces similarly hidden, some with ants on them."
M. P. Skinner (1928) says: "Although other woodpeckers
carry off and store bits of food, the red-bellied woodpeckers
appear to do it more than any others in the Sandhills. These birds
are rather easily attracted to artificial feeding stations,
especially if suet be offered them. They will eat nuts and bread
crumbs, also, but not as greedily."
Behavior.--Mr. Skinner (1928)
writes: "In flight, these woodpeckers are apt to progress
step by step from tree to tree. In this respect, and in that it is
undulating, their flight is much like that of other woodpeckers.
In approaching a perch, the red-bellied woodpeckers usually glide
and sweep up to it with the impetus already gained. . . . These
woodpeckers work and hammer on the trunks of trees, on the boles
of oaks, on boles high up in live or blasted pines, and on both
living and dead limbs, usually working up, but working down also
if they want to, using a peculiar partly-sidewise drop
downward."
Voice.--Mr. Simmons (1925) gives the
following elaborate interpretations of the various calls of this
noisy bird:
In fall and winter, a soft scolding 'chuh'; 'chuh-chuh';
'chow-chow'; 'cherr-cherr'; or 'chawh-chawh'. At other seasons, a
variety of calls: a slow, harsh 'crer-r-r-r-r-r r r r r r r' or 'chur-r-r-r-r
r r r r r r'; a noisy 'charr-r-r' or 'chawh-chawh'; a rather slow,
regular 'chuh-chuh-chuh-chuh-chuh,' sometimes uttered in a series
of a dozen or more as rapidly as the syllables can be plainly
pronounced; a very rapid 'chuck-a-chuck-a-chuck-a-chuck-a
-chuck-a- chuck-a-chuck-a'; a slow, harsh 'sherr, cherr, cherr' or
'crerr, creer, creer, creer, creer'; an alarmed 'cha-cha-cha'; at
intervals, a loud, bold, running, connected 'koo er-r-r-r'; 'qu er-r-r-r-r';
'qui er-r-r-r-r'; or 'k-r-r-ring,' uttered with a distinct rolling
of the r's; in the nesting season, an additional 'whicker.'
Bendire (1895) says: "The Red-bellied, like the majority
of our Woodpeckers, is a rather noisy bird. Its ordinary call note
resembles the 'tchurr, tchurr' of the red-headed very closely;
another sounds more like 'chawh, chawh,' and this is occasionally
varied with a disagreeable creaking note, while during the mating
season peculiar, low mournful cooing sounds are sometimes uttered,
which somewhat resemble those of the Mourning Dove."
Various other observers have given somewhat similar
descriptions to some of the above interpretations. When I first
saw this woodpecker, many years ago in Florida, climbing up the
trunk of a cabbage palmetto, its rolling notes sounded to me like
those of a tree toad, as heard before a rain.
Field marks.--The red-bellied
woodpecker is so conspicuously marked that it could hardly be
overlooked. It is a medium-sized woodpecker, about the size of the
hairy; the entire back and rump are conspicuously barred
transversely with black and white; the wings are spotted or barred
with white; the under parts are uniform gray, except for the
inconspicuous reddish tinge on the abdomen; in the male the entire
crown and nape are brilliant scarlet, and a large patch of the
same color adorns the nape of the female.
Winter.--The migrations of this
woodpecker are, apparently, not so extensive or so regular as
those of most migratory birds; they seem to consist more of
irregular wanderings and to depend more on the abundance of the
food supply. The species occurs, in small numbers at least, more
or less irregularly in winter even in the northern portions of its
range. There is, however, usually a general southward movement in
fall, which greatly increases its abundance in the southern states
in winter. William H. Fisher (1897) says of its winter occurrence
in Maryland: "I have only met with about half a dozen
individuals outside of Somerset County, but there, for the last
fourteen years, in either November, December or January, I have
found them to be very abundant. According to my observations, they
prefer the low, swampy woodlands and clearings, only occasionally
being found in the isolated tree in the field."
W. E. Saunders tells me that it was formerly quite common in
southern Ontario and came regularly to the feeding stations in
winter; evidently some of these birds did not migrate. On the
other hand, Audubon (1842) says: "In winter I have found the
red-bellied woodpecker the most abundant of all in the pine
barrens of the Floridas, and especially on the plantations
bordering the St. John's river, where on any day it would have
been easy to procure half a hundred." And C. J. Maynard
(1896) writes: "I found the red-bellied woodpeckers quite
abundant in winter in the piney woods which border the plantations
on the Sea Islands off the Carolinas but as I proceeded south,
their numbers increased and in Florida, they fairly swarmed,
actually occurring in flocks. They accompany the cockaded
woodpeckers in the piney woods and also associate with the
yellow-bellies in the swamps and hummocks; in fact, it is
difficult to remain long in any portion of Florida where there are
trees, without hearing the discordant croak of these woodpeckers
and I even found them on the Keys."
Red-bellied Woodpecker*
Melanerpes carolinus
*Original Source: Bent,
Arthur Cleveland. 1939. Smithsonian Institution United States
National Museum Bulletin 174: 237-245. United States Government
Printing Office
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