Red-bellied Woodpecker

Here's a Red-bellied Woodpecker I met last March. These guys don't seem to be migrators; my field guide says their range is the same in summer and winter. I suspect this means there are still insects to be found in trees all year round, even if they're not necessarily active in winter.

As the most common woodpecker in my area with a red head, a fair number of people refer to them as Red-headed Woodpeckers, but that's a different species entirely (and one with an even redder head). Despite looking quite different, the Red-headed Woodpecker is the closest NJ relative to the Red-bellied Woodpecker; they're both in the same genus (Melanerpes).

I mentioned recently that the European Starling isn't a terribly popular bird. One reason is that they'll attack native birds like the Red-bellied Woodpecker in order to take over tree cavities that the woodpeckers created since both species are cavity nesters. The starlings are a little bigger bird, but their success against the Red-bellied Woodpecker seems to be more about the starlings' willingness to hurt other birds. The good news is that this hasn't driven down the Red-bellied Woodpecker population much since they're almost certainly in our top 2 most common woodpeckers here in NJ.

March 9, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway
Photo 120274739, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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