Photo © 2005 Jim Jung and licensors. All rights reserved.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers

By the first of April our local permanent residents, the Red-bellied Woodpeckers, have paired up and finished excavating a nesting hole in a dead or dying tree. Here the female will lay up to five small white eggs. By day they're kept warm by the expectant mother and at night dad takes his turn keeping them snug and toasty. About two weeks of this alternating parental heat and ... voila! ... baby woodpeckers.

By mid May the youngsters will be fully feathered and out and about learning Secret Woodpecker Lore from their parents - learning where the best wood grubs are found, how to catch edible insects, and which fruits and nuts are tastiest. These woodpeckers will even visit feeding stations, especially ones that feature suet on the menu - and especially in hard winters.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are birds of mature woodlands who need dead and dying trees to survive. This is why removing those trees, disparagingly called "snags" by the timber industry, is ultimately bad for forest diversity. If you have a tree (or trees) like this and they aren't threatening your life or property, leave it standing! While many people find this "unsightly" the interesting and entertaining wildlife such a tree attracts and supports more than compensates for this supposed loss of esthetics.

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