The striking Red-headed Woodpecker is most often found in savanna-like areas of widely scattered trees with grassy understories. It especially favors oak savannas, beech woods, river bottoms, and groves of dead and dying trees, which provide nesting, roosting, and foraging sites. This species is highly omnivorous, consuming acorns, seeds, fruit, and insects, bird eggs and nestlings, and even small rodents. It is one of only four woodpecker species known to store food, caching future meals under bark or shingles, in wood crevices, or in fence posts.  The Red-headed Woodpecker is declining over much of its range, mainly due to lack of suitable habitat. Savanna-like habitats have become increasingly rare due to decades of fire suppression, and in places where they do occur, such as woodlots and parks, habitat is made less than ideal by removal of snags (dead trees) that are often perceived as unsightly or even a hazard.
Woodland restoration efforts that focus on increasing suitable nesting habitat can help this colorful woodpecker, such as projects underway in the Central Hardwoods Joint Venture. Support ABC efforts to save this and other WatchList bird species! |
