It’s our nature: Do you know our common woodpeckers?

In the Times News area you could find seven species of woodpeckers. Let’s see what you know about them.

The red-bellied woodpecker has become one of the most common species. With the pattern of less severe winters, this bird has steadily expanded its range farther and farther north. In my early birding years they were not found in our county.

The red-bellied does have quite a bit of red on its head, and many novice birders have mistakenly identified it as a redheaded woodpecker. The redheaded has a strikingly bright red head and vivid black and white body and wings.

I’ve found them to enjoy feeding on the suet in my feeders. They are rather vocal, and if you are successful at attracting them you will soon learn their calls. They are year-round residents here and reach 9 inches in size.

Northern flickers are another common species. This bird uncharacteristically spends most of its time feeding on the ground. They prefer eating ants and will search your yard or fields for ant hills.

Flickers generally arrive in our area in April and migrate south in September.

I have observed “flicker days “in spring, sometimes watching a hundred or more a day as they head back north. A few hardy ones overwinter, and this was evidenced by my sighting of two in the first week of November. They are basically light brown with black ladder back markings.

They, and all woodpeckers, can be identified by their characteristic undulating flight. However, a noticeable field identification mark for them is a large white rump patch. If one flies away from an ant hill this white spot is easily seen.

Flickers are often preyed upon by hawks (accipiters chiefly) and I believe the white spot is an adaptation “directing” hawks to attacking the “wrong end” of the bird, giving it an extra chance to survive.

Downy and hairy woodpeckers are year-round residents. They both look very similar but the hairy is about 2½ inches larger and has a noticeably heavier bill. They, like the other woodpeckers, excavate a nest cavity in a dead or dying tree where they lay their eggs. The cavity location is often under a limb or under the spot where a limb may have rotted off.

The hairy woodpeckers are more likely to be found in the “deeper” woods habitat compared to the downy.

I believe the hairy numbers may have dropped a bit due to new competition from the new guy on the block, the red-bellied.

The other rather common species is the pileated woodpecker. It is the country’s largest woodpecker species now that the ivory-billed has become extinct.

The pileated nest cavity is much deeper and larger than the others and their nest holes are in much larger trees.

I will dedicate a column in the near future highlighting this bird. Woody Woodpecker was modeled after the pileated.

Test your knowledge: While most bird species’ eggs are blotched, marbled or speckled, why are woodpeckers’ eggs all white?

Last week’s trivia answer: After a winter of snow cover on their lawns, homeowners may find a zigzag of chewed grass trails above the soil. The culprit is the meadow vole. Moles tunnel under the soil.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.