Melanerpes erythrocephalusred-headed woodpecker

Ge­o­graphic Range

Red-headed wood­peck­ers are widely dis­trib­uted through­out most of North Amer­ica. They range east to west from the Rocky Moun­tains to the At­lantic Ocean, and north to south from Lake Win­nipeg (Man­i­toba) and south­ern On­tario, to Texas, the Gulf of Mex­ico, and Florida. Once a com­mon bird, this species is now found spo­rad­i­cally through­out its range.

Habi­tat

Red-headed wood­peck­ers pre­fer open wood­lands and for­est edges and clear­ings. They are often found in de­cid­u­ous wood­lands, river bot­toms, open woods, or­chards, parks, open coun­try, sa­van­nas and grass­lands with scat­tered trees. They gen­er­ally pre­fer habi­tat with few tall, large-di­am­e­ter trees.

The win­ter habi­tat of this species is sim­i­lar to the breed­ing habi­tat; red-headed wood­peck­ers spend the win­ter in ma­ture forests con­tain­ing large, old trees. Their win­ter dis­tri­b­u­tion within the range is thought to be pri­mar­ily de­pen­dent on the abun­dance of food, par­tic­u­larly acorns. (Smith, et al., 2000)

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Male and fe­male red-headed wood­peck­ers look alike. The en­tire head, neck, throat and upper breast are bright red. The wings and tail are bluish-black, and there are large square areas of white on the rear part of their wings and upper rump. The white on the wings makes them es­pe­cially no­tice­able dur­ing flight. Im­ma­ture birds also pos­sess the white patches on their wings. How­ever, im­ma­ture red-headed wood­peck­ers have a buffy-brown head and neck, which be­comes red after the first molt.

This wood­pecker is rel­a­tively small com­pared to oth­ers in its fam­ily. Red-headed wood­peck­ers can range from 21 to 25 cm in length and have a wingspan of 33 to 37 cm. The bill is long and chisel shaped, which is im­por­tant for drilling into trees. The av­er­age red-headed wood­pecker weighs ap­prox­i­mately 70 grams.

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • sexes alike
  • Average mass
    70 g
    2.47 oz
  • Average mass
    75 g
    2.64 oz
    AnAge
  • Range length
    21 to 25 cm
    8.27 to 9.84 in
  • Range wingspan
    33 to 37 cm
    12.99 to 14.57 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Red-headed wood­peck­ers are thought to be monog­a­mous, though polyg­yny may occur. There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion avail­able about for­ma­tion or du­ra­tion of pair bonds in this species, though some pairs are known to have mated to­gether over sev­eral sea­sons. (Smith, et al., 2000)

These wood­peck­ers nest in cav­i­ties that they ex­ca­vate with their beaks. The nest sites range from nat­ural holes, to under roofs of build­ings, to fence posts, or util­ity poles. Pre­ferred nest sites are in dead trees. Both the male and fe­male ex­ca­vate the nest, though the male does most of the drilling. The cav­ity is 20 to 60 cm deep. The cav­ity en­trance is 5-6 cm in di­am­e­ter, but ex­pands in­side to nearly twice that width. (Smith, et al., 2000)

The eggs are laid be­tween April and July, with clutch sizes of 3 to 10 eggs, most com­monly 5 eggs. In­cu­ba­tion be­gins after the last egg is laid, and lasts 12 to 14 days. Both par­ents in­cu­bate, with males in­cu­bat­ing at night. The chicks are al­tri­cial when they hatch; they are naked and their eyes don’t open for 12 to 13 days. The young are fed and brooded by both par­ents and leave the nest at 24 to 31 days old. The chicks are strong fliers and able to catch their own food soon after fledg­ing. Chicks that re­main near the nest after sev­eral weeks are chased away by the par­ents. The chicks will be able to breed the next sum­mer.

Red-headed wood­peck­ers have one or two broods a year. Pairs may start a sec­ond nest­ing at­tempt while still feed­ing the first brood. Though the sec­ond brood can be raised in the same nest, a new nest cav­ity is usu­ally found. (Smith, et al., 2000)

  • Breeding interval
    Red-headed woodpeckers have one or two broods a year.
  • Breeding season
    The breeding season spans from April to July.
  • Range eggs per season
    3 to 10
  • Average eggs per season
    5
  • Average eggs per season
    5
    AnAge
  • Range time to hatching
    12 to 14 days
  • Range fledging age
    24 to 31 days
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    1 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    1 years

Male and fe­male red-headed wood­peck­ers share most of the parental re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, in­clud­ing nest con­struc­tion, in­cu­ba­tion, feed­ing, brood­ing and oth­er­wise car­ing for the young. (Smith, et al., 2000)

  • Parental Investment
  • altricial
  • pre-fertilization
    • provisioning
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • protecting
      • male
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • male
      • female
    • protecting
      • male
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

An­nual adult sur­vivor­ship is es­ti­mated to be about 62% in this species. The old­est known wild red-headed wood­pecker lived at least 9 years and 11 months. (Smith, et al., 2000)

Be­hav­ior

Red-headed wood­peck­ers are soli­tary. They de­fend breed­ing ter­ri­to­ries in spring and sum­mer and feed­ing ter­ri­to­ries in fall and win­ter.

Red-headed wood­peck­ers spend the ma­jor­ity of their time for­ag­ing. Whether watch­ing for fly­ing in­sects or for­ag­ing on the ground, they are usu­ally search­ing for food. In au­tumn, these wood­peck­ers store food for the win­ter.

Red-headed wood­peck­ers are year-round res­i­dents through­out most of their range. Those that breed in the north­ern and west­ern parts of the range mi­grate to south­ern states in the win­ter. Mi­gra­tion oc­curs by day and in short spurts. There are no records of red-headed wood­peck­ers oc­cur­ring south of the United States. (Smith, et al., 2000)

Home Range

We do not have in­for­ma­tion on home range for this species at this time. The home range of red-headed wood­peck­ers varies from year to year, de­pend­ing on food avail­abil­ity.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Red-headed wood­peck­ers com­mu­ni­cate using a wide array of calls and drum­ming. Both vo­cal­iza­tions and drum­ming seem to be used in a va­ri­ety of so­cial sit­u­a­tions, in­clud­ing ter­ri­to­r­ial en­coun­ters, courtship, cop­u­la­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween a mated pair. For ex­am­ple, mu­tual tap­ping (male tap­ping on the in­side of the nest cav­ity while fe­male taps on the out­side) may play an im­por­tant role in courtship. (Smith, et al., 2000)

  • Other Communication Modes
  • duets

Food Habits

Red-headed wood­peck­ers are one of the most om­niv­o­rous wood­pecker species. Their diet in­cludes a wide va­ri­ety of in­sects, spi­ders, earth­worms, nuts, seeds, berries, wild and cul­ti­vated fruit and oc­ca­sion­ally small mam­mals. These wood­peck­ers are also known to eat young or eggs from the nests of blue­birds, house spar­rows <<Passer do­mes­ti­cus and chick­adees. Oc­ca­sion­ally, they can also be seen eat­ing bark.

Red-headed wood­peck­ers have many tech­niques for ob­tain­ing food. They perch on branches or util­ity poles watch­ing for fly­ing in­sects and then dart­ing after them. They also spend time for­ag­ing on the ground or in shrubs. A com­mon mis­con­cep­tion is that all wood­peck­ers drill holes in trees to find the ma­jor­ity of their food. Al­though they oc­ca­sion­ally drill dead trees for wood bor­ing lar­vae, fly­ing in­sects are more im­por­tant in the diet of red-headed wood­peck­ers.

The ma­jor­ity of the food found by red-headed wood­peck­ers is stored in nat­ural or an­thro­pogenic crevices or holes that are not ex­ca­vated by the wood­peck­ers them­selves. If a piece of nut does not fit into the in­tended crevice, red-headed wood­peck­ers break the nut into pieces rather than mod­i­fy­ing the crevice to fit the food. Some food stores are sealed with wood chips to pro­tect the food from po­ten­tial scav­engers.

  • Animal Foods
  • birds
  • mammals
  • eggs
  • insects
  • terrestrial non-insect arthropods
  • terrestrial worms
  • Plant Foods
  • wood, bark, or stems
  • seeds, grains, and nuts
  • fruit

Pre­da­tion

Red-headed wood­peck­ers adults are vul­ner­a­ble to pre­da­tion by rap­tors, in­clud­ing Cooper’s hawks, and pere­grine fal­cons, east­ern screech-owls and red foxes. Eggs and chicks are pre­dated by snakes, in­clud­ing black rat snakes and mam­mals, in­clud­ing rac­coons and fly­ing squir­rels.

Adult red-headed wood­peck­ers re­spond to ap­proach­ing preda­tors by scold­ing them with a “chur­ring” call. (Smith, et al., 2000)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Red-headed wood­peck­ers have an im­pact on the plant and an­i­mal species they eat. For ex­am­ple, they may aid in the dis­per­sal of plants whose seeds they cache if the seeds are not later re­trieved. Red-headed wood­peck­ers also play an im­por­tant role in cre­at­ing nest cav­i­ties for other cav­ity-nest­ing birds and mam­mals that do not ex­ca­vate their own nest holes.

Red-headed wood­peck­ers pro­vide food for their preda­tors. They also host a num­ber of in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal par­a­sites. (Smith, et al., 2000)

  • Ecosystem Impact
  • disperses seeds
  • creates habitat
Com­men­sal/Par­a­sitic Species
  • Cav­ity nest­ing birds and mam­mals

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

This bird is a fa­vorite of bird­watch­ers and thus pro­vides recre­ational value to hu­mans.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Red-headed wood­peck­ers some­times feed on cul­ti­vated fruits and veg­eta­bles. This can cost small farm­ers.

  • Negative Impacts
  • crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Red-headed wood­peck­ers were once very com­mon through­out east­ern North Amer­ica, but have been de­creas­ing in abun­dance. In the 1890's, the in­tro­duc­tion of Eu­ro­pean star­lings (Stur­nus vul­garis) had a sig­nif­i­cant neg­a­tive im­pact on red-headed wood­peck­ers. The star­lings com­pete with these wood­peck­ers for their nest­ing holes, fre­quently dri­ving them from their homes.

Also con­tribut­ing to the de­cline of red-headed wood­peck­ers is the in­creased re­moval of dead trees con­tain­ing po­ten­tial nest sites. The in­creased use of au­to­mo­biles has also led to de­clin­ing num­bers of red-headed wood­peck­ers, which are often struck by cars when swoop­ing for prey. In order to con­serve red-headed wood­peck­ers, their habi­tat needs to be pro­tected and Eu­ro­pean star­ling pop­u­la­tions must be con­trolled.

Red-headed wood­peck­ers are pro­tected under the US Mi­gra­tory Bird Treaty Act. They are listed as a near-threat­ened species by the IUCN.

Con­trib­u­tors

Alaine Cam­field (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Kari Kirschbaum (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Eliz­a­beth J. Axley (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

agricultural

living in landscapes dominated by human agriculture.

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
duets

to jointly display, usually with sounds in a highly coordinated fashion, at the same time as one other individual of the same species, often a mate

ecotourism

humans benefit economically by promoting tourism that focuses on the appreciation of natural areas or animals. Ecotourism implies that there are existing programs that profit from the appreciation of natural areas or animals.

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

migratory

makes seasonal movements between breeding and wintering grounds

monogamous

Having one mate at a time.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

omnivore

an animal that mainly eats all kinds of things, including plants and animals

oviparous

reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.

riparian

Referring to something living or located adjacent to a waterbody (usually, but not always, a river or stream).

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

stores or caches food

places a food item in a special place to be eaten later. Also called "hoarding"

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

visual

uses sight to communicate

Ref­er­ences

Ehrlich, P., D. Dobkin, D. Wheye. 1988. The Birder's Hand­book: A Field Guide to the Nat­ural His­tory of North Amer­i­can Birds. New York: Simon and Schus­ter.

Gra­ham, F. 1989. Star­ling scourge: Red-headed wood­peck­ers. Audubon, 91: 25-27.

In­glod, D. 1989. Nest­ing phe­nol­ogy and com­pe­ti­tion for nest site among red-headed and red-bel­lied wood­peck­ers and Eu­ro­pean Star­lings. Auk, 106(2): 209-217.

Kauf­man, K. 1996. Lives of North Amer­i­can Birds. Boston, MA: Houghton Mif­flin Com­pany.

Mc­Nair, D. 1996. Late breed­ing records of a red headed wood­pecker and a sum­mer tan­ager in Florida. Florida Field Nat­u­ral­ist, 24(3): 78-80.

Smith, K., J. With­gott, P. Rode­wald. 2000. Red-headed wood­pecker (Melan­er­pes ery­thro­cephalus). Pp. 1-28 in A Poole, F Gill, eds. The Birds of North Amer­ica, Vol. 518. Philadel­phia: The Birds of North Amer­ica, Inc.

Win­kler, H. 1995. Wood­peck­ers: A guide to the wood­peck­ers of the world. Boston, MA: Houghton Mif­flin Com­pany.