These woodpeckers are not such persistent destroyers of insects as others of their family. They have a decided preference for beetles, but eat fewer ants and larvæ than do the Downy and Hairy woodpeckers. They are exceptionally fond of vegetable food; their preference for beechnuts is very great. Dr. C. Hart Merriam states that in northern New York, where the redhead is one of the commonest woodpeckers, it subsists almost exclusively on beechnuts during the fall and winter, even pecking the green nuts before they are ripe and while the trees are still covered with leaves. He has shown that these woodpeckers invariably remain throughout the winter after good nut-yields and migrate whenever the nut-crop fails.[75]
“In central Indiana during a good beechnut year, from the time the nuts began to ripen, the redheads were almost constantly on the wing; passing from the beeches to some place of deposit. They hid the nuts in almost every conceivable situation. Many were placed in cavities in partly decayed trees; and the felling of an old beech was certain to provide a feast for the children. Large handfuls were taken from a single knot hole. They were often found under a patch of raised bark, and single nuts were driven into cracks in the bark. Others were thrust into cracks in gate-posts; and a favorite place of deposit was behind long slivers on fence-posts. In a few cases grains of corn were mixed with beechnuts. Nuts were often driven into cracks in the end of railroad ties, and the birds were often seen on the roofs of houses pounding nuts into crevices between the shingles. In several instances the space formed by a board springing away from a fence was nearly filled with nuts, and afterwards pieces of bark and wood were brought and driven over the nuts as if to hide them from poachers.”[76]
In summer, Dr. Merriam has seen the redheads “make frequent sallies into the air after passing insects, which were almost invariably secured.” He has also seen them catch grasshoppers on the ground in a pasture.
They are cheerful, active birds, with a call like that of a giant tree-toad. Their brilliant plumage has unfortunately made them a good target for sportsmen.
THE RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER
Woodpecker Family—Picidæ
Length: About 9½ inches.
Male: Crown of head and back of neck bright red, resembling slightly that of the red-headed woodpecker, but throat and cheeks gray; back and wings barred with white, the barring reminding one of the flicker. Under parts gray mashed with red; tail black and white; upper tail-coverts white, streaked with black.
Female: Crown gray, nostrils and neck bright red.
Notes: Mr. Frank Chapman writes of this woodpecker: “It ascends a tree in a curious, jerky fashion, accompanying each upward move by a hoarse chu-chu. It also utters k-r-r-r-ring roll and, when mating, a whicker call like that of the Flicker.”[77]
Habitat: Open woods of deciduous trees and conifers; also groves of live-oak, palmettoes, and other southern trees, where these birds may be seen in company with flickers.
Range: From southern Canada and eastern United States southward; abundant in the Southern States; rare in New England; is found in western New York and south-western Pennsylvania, and Delaware, south to central Texas and the Gulf States.
YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER
Professor Beal made the following report regarding this woodpecker: “The red-bellied woodpecker ranges over the eastern United States as far west as central Texas and eastern Colorado and as far north as New York, southern Ontario, Michigan, and southern Minnesota. It breeds throughout this range and appears to be irregularly migratory. It appears to go north of its breeding range sometimes to spend the winter. Four stomachs, collected in November and December, were received from Canada, and in eight years’ residence in central Iowa the writer found the species abundant every winter, but never saw one in the breeding season. It is rather more of a forest bird than some of the other woodpeckers, but is frequently seen in open or thinly timbered country. In the northern part of its range it appears to prefer deciduous growth, but in the South is very common in pine forests.
“Ants are a fairly constant article of diet. The most are taken during the warmer months. Evidently this bird does not dig all the ants which it eats from decaying wood, like the downy woodpecker, but, like the flickers, collects them from the ground and the bark of trees.