Red-Headed Woodpecker Habitats: Black Bodies, Cavity Nests, White Eggs

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

red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) in DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge; April 18, 2008: David Menke/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library

North American red-headed woodpecker habitats appall arborists, master gardeners, master naturalists and tree stewards through Picidae family wildlife associations with dead woody plant-dotted, declining distribution ranges in Canada and the United States.

Red-headed woodpeckers bear their common name as the only completely red-headed Picidae family member and the scientific name Melanerpes erythrocephalus as a black, creeping, red-headed bird. Described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1787), they cluster into brodkorbi (William Brodkorb, Sept. 29, 1908-July 19, 1992), nominate and northwest subspecies. Breeding draws them seasonally east of the Rockies and west of the upper Mississippi and within scattered northeastern niches and year-round east of the Great Plains.

Ten-year lifespans expect dead stubs, fenceposts, live trees, roofs or telegraph poles near coniferous, deciduous, riparian or swampy woodlands, farmlands, forest edges, gardens, orchards or parklands.

May through August facilitate brooding one three- to eight-egg clutch, followed by another if the first fails, in cavity nests within barkless, dead, smooth, snake-unfriendly wood.

Parents-to-be gather no lining for 8- to 14-inch- (20.32- to 35.56-centimeter-) deep, 3- to 4.5-inch- (7.62- to 11.43-centimeter-) across cavities with 1.75-inch- (4.45-centimeter-) diameter entrance holes. Cavity nests at 8- to 80-foot (2.44- to 24.38-meter) heights house 8.66- to 11.42-inch- (22- to 29-centimeter-) long, 6.69- to 8.66-inch- (17- to 22-centimeter-) wide eggs. The daily laying intervals between the elliptical, oval or subelliptical, pure white, smooth, somewhat glossy, unmarked eggs initiate the parent-shared incubations before the clutch is complete.

Brown-headed cowbirds, Cooper's hawks, flying squirrels, fox squirrels, northern harriers, peregrine falcons, raccoons, racers, rat-snakes, red foxes, red-tailed hawks and screech-owls jeopardize American red-headed woodpecker habitats.

Parents-to-be keep away from birdhouse lifestyles since eggs know fatalities from cavity nest-invading starlings while blind, helpless, long-necked, naked hatchlings know poisoning in creosote-treated utility poles.

Different-aged, different-sized hatchlings and nestlings leave after three-and-one-half to four-plus weeks of parental care and food to nearby roosts unless located elsewhere because of second clutches. They manage sight within 12 to 13 days, their own feathering, food hunts and flight within 24 to 31 days and mature sexually within one year. Adults need ants, apples, beetles, blackberries, caterpillars, cherries, chokecherries, corn, crickets, elderberries, grapes, grasshoppers, huckleberries, laural-cherries, lizards, mice, mulberries, pawpaws, pears, raspberries, spiders, strawberries and wasps.

North American red-headed woodpecker habitats offer winter's acorn, beechnut, maple seed and pecan mast and 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-headed woodpecker life cycles.

Black-barred white wing feathers, blue-shining black tails and upper-parts, brown heads, dark eyes and gray bills, feet and legs qualify as juvenile female and male identifications. Black, narrow necklaces, blue-gray bills, feet and legs, blue-shining black tails and upper-parts, white rumps and underparts and white-patched black wings reveal black-clawed, dark-eyed, red-headed adults. Strong-flapped, unremarkably undulating flight on 16- to 18-inch (40.64- to 45.72-centimeter) wingspans suggest 8.5- to 9.5-inch (21.59- to 24.13-centimeter), 2- to 3-ounce (56.69- to 85.05-gram) adults.

North American red-headed woodpecker habitats transmit alarm, breeding and loud churr calls in central Canada during summers and the eastern United States summers, winters or year-round.

illustration of red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) eggs; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate XLIV, opp. page 147: 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-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) in DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge; April 18, 2008: David Menke/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library @ https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/natdiglib/id/395/rec/1

illustration of red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) eggs; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate XLIV, opp. page 147: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908249

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. "5. Picus erythrocephalus." 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 erythrocephalus (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