Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Overview

The red-cockaded woodpecker (Dryobates borealis) is a small to mid-sized woodpecker endemic to the southeastern United States. It is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and is recognised as a keystone species in southern pine forest ecosystems.

Identification

• Back is barred with black and white horizontal stripes.
• Most distinguishing feature is a black cap and nape that encircle large white cheek patches.
• Males have a small red streak on each side of the black cap, called a cockade, though this is rarely visible outside the breeding season.
• Measures 18–23 cm in length, with a wingspan of 34–41 cm.

Habitat

This species makes its home in fire-dependent pine savannas, with a strong preference for longleaf pines. Historically, its range extended from Florida to New Jersey and inland to Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, but it is now restricted to areas from Florida to Virginia and west to southeast Oklahoma and eastern Texas.

Diet

The bird feeds primarily on ants, beetles, cockroaches, caterpillars, wood-boring insects, and spiders, occasionally consuming fruit and berries. The vast majority of foraging occurs on pines, with a strong preference for large trees, though they will occasionally forage on hardwoods or even corn earworms in cornfields.

Did you know?

It is the only woodpecker that excavates cavities exclusively in living pine trees, a process that can take up to several decades to complete. It maintains resin wells at cavity entrances as a defense mechanism, as the slippery sap prevents rat snakes from climbing the trees to reach the nest.