Red-Bellied Woodpecker Habitats: Black Body, Cavity Nest, White Egg

Summary: North American red-bellied woodpecker habitats year-round in southern Canada and the United States get black bodies, cavity nests and white eggs.

red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania; May 9, 2009: John Miles/ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region, Public Domain, via Flickr

North American red-bellied woodpecker habitats admit arborists, master gardeners, master naturalists and tree stewards in emerald ash borer-controlling Picidae family distribution ranges in south-central and southeast Canada and in the United States.

Red-bellied woodpeckers bear their common name because of unobvious red-tinged bellies and the scientific name Melanerpes carolinus as black creepers brought to European attention in Carolina. Ornithologists consider red-bellied woodpecker classifications in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1787) valid and subsequent subspecies categories in 1783, 1944 and 1954 invalid. Red-bellied woodpeckers display grayer cheeks and throats in central-eastern Texas and less white on tails, paler red-marked foreheads, smaller sizes and whiter upper-parts in southern Florida.

Twelve-year lifespans expect mature hardwood, mixed coniferous-deciduous, riparian or second-growth forests, open woodlands, orchards, parks, pine flat-woods, suburban and urban woods, timbered bottomlands or swampy woodlands.

April through August facilitate brooding two two- to eight-egg clutches, followed by a third if the others fail, at 5- to 80-foot (1.52- to 24.38-meter) heights.

Parents-to-be gather no lining for co-chosen and co-excavated, 10- to 12-inch- (25.4- to 30.48-centimeter-) deep cavity nests 5 to 5.5 inches (12.7 to 13.97 centimeters) across. Cavity nests with entrance holes 1 to 2.25 inches (2.54 to 5.72 centimeters) in diameter house elliptical, oval or subelliptical, smooth, somewhat glossy, unmarked, white eggs. Day-shift mothers-to-be and night-shift fathers-to-be initiate 12- to 14-day incubations of 0.87- to 1.14-inch- (22- to 29-millimeter-) long, 0.67- to 0.87-inch- (17- to 22-millimeter-) wide eggs.

Black rat-snakes, blue jays, Cooper's hawks, European starlings, gray rat-snakes, northern flickers, pileated woodpeckers, red-cockaded woodpeckers, red-headed woodpeckers and sharp-shinned hawks jeopardize American red-bellied woodpecker habitats.

Mating and raising a family keep monogamous adult female and male red-bellied woodpeckers busy choosing and excavating fresh holes in the same poles, posts or trees.

Hatchlings look less blind, helpless and naked with claws at six days, eyes opening over six to 15 days and feathering over 10 to 21 days. They manage parent-foraged, parent-portioned food before moving, as 24- to 27-day-old fledglings into nearby roosts for ten weeks of assisted feeding and maturing sexually as one-year-olds. Adults need acorns, anoles, ants, caterpillars, corn, flies, grains, grapes, grasshoppers, hackberries, lizards, minnows, mangoes, oozing sap, orange juices and pulp, pine seeds and tree frogs.

North American red-bellied woodpecker habitats up to 2,952.76 feet (900 meters) above sea level offer winter-coldest temperatures at minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 degrees Celsius).

Ash, basswood, beech, birch, cedar, cottonwood, cypress, elm, hickory, juniper, maple, oak, palmetto, pine, spruce, sugarberry, sweetgum, sycamore, willow and yellow-poplar promote red-bellied woodpecker life cycles.

Brown heads without any red, gray crowns and red crowns with red foreheads qualify as respective hallmarks of juvenile, male adult and mature female red-bellied woodpeckers. Black- and white-barred tails and upper-parts, gray-tan underparts, pale gray-tan faces, red napes, subtly red-tinged bellies, round heads and white-patched outer wing bases reveal adult presences. Undulating flight on 12.99- to 16.54-inch- (33- to 42-centimeter-) long wingspans suggest 9.06- to 10.63-inch- (23- to 27-centimeter-) long, 1.98- to 3.21-ounce (56- to 91-gram) adults.

North American red-headed woodpecker habitats team with coughing, gruff cha-cha-cha sounds, drumming against loud or resonant objects by males, rolling, shrill krrurrr calls and throaty growls.

illustration of eggs of red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) under scientific synonym of Centurus carolinus; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate LXIV, opposite page 264: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania; May 9, 2009: John Miles/ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region, Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsnortheast/5277661661/

illustration of eggs of red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) under scientific synonym of Centurus carolinus; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate LXIV, opposite page 264: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908447

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volumes 8-11, Birds I-IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Jones, Howard. 1886. Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. Illustrations by Mrs. N.E. Jones. Vol. II. Circleville OH: s.n. (sine nomine).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908243

Linnaeus, Carl. 1758. "6. Picus carolinus." Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, Tomus I, Editio Decima, Reformata: 113. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727018

Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus) 1758." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Piciformes > Picidae > Melanerpes.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/pici.html