What a handsome bird! The Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) is a common visitor to my backyard. It is one of the larger birds that frequent my yard and has a call that, to me, sounds like a laugh. Here is an audio clip of Red-bellied Woodpecker calls from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s site, All About Birds. Neat, huh?
The female is easy to distinguish from the male because the red on her head really is only on the nape of her neck, whereas the male has red from the top of his head to the nape of is neck. Here is a female; see the difference?
Isn’t she just beautiful! Their colors and patterns remind me of a pair of Vans I had when I was in high school. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it wouldn’t be amusing anyway ;-).
The female shown above has a piece of pecan in her mouth from a feeder that I had out at the time. The more I learn about wildlife and nature the more I wonder if supplying artificial sources of food for my beloved birds is the best thing to do. I have compromised with myself for now by offering black-oil sunflower seeds as an all-purpose food and occasional shelled peanuts. One thing I know for sure, my backyard provides plenty of insects, spiders and tree sap!
I’ll close with pictures of a busy Mr. Woodpecker that I spotted on a recent hike at a nature preserve near my home. This was my first time to witness a woodpecker excavating a nest site. It was really fascinating and he was at it for HOURS.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Nice photographs. Keep up the good work - there’s always a need for good sites like this one.
I have bookmarked it and shall return.