Fun Fact Friday: If you set out bird feeders, you’ve likely hosted one or more of these beautiful woodpeckers – and you’d know it. Red-bellied Woodpeckers are no shrinking violets. These boisterous, feisty birds are common to wooded backyards across the eastern US, where they loudly stake claims to seed and suet feeders and defend them against all but the most aggressive birds (like Blue Jays).
Red-bellied Woodpeckers are habitat generalists, and they’ve managed a great deal of success as a result. Along with sylvan suburbs, you can find them in forests of pine and oak; maple stands; wetlands; and woodlands throughout their range. They are similarly non-discriminating in their food choices, dining on insects and spiders; acorns, nuts, pine cones, and seeds; and fruits from grapes to oranges. They’ll even occasionally feast upon lizards, eggs and hatchlings, and small fish like minnows.
Like Cardinals, Mockingbirds, and Carolina Wrens (among others), these woodpeckers have been expanding north since the 1950s, aided by an increase in mature forests and warming temperatures. In fact, like the White Ibis, Red-bellied Woodpeckers are one of the few birds that may benefit from climate change. As such, they serve as another “canary in the coalmine”: A continued successful northward push on their part may be a harbinger of further climate disruptions that could affect us all.
Fun Fact: Though these birds do have red bellies, they’re not easy to see, and you might think that Red-headed Woodpecker would be a better name. That’s been taken, though, by a similarly sized woodpecker that has a completely red head.
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