Red-Bellied woodpecker
I spend a lot of time walking with my dog. We walk along a few different paths each day and observe the wildlife in the areas that we walk. Over the course of a few weeks, I had noticed that a woodpecker kept returning to a certain area. After I had an idea of where I wanted to set my camera up to try to photograph it, I got up around an hour before sunrise and went out with my camera and tripod. After a while of waiting to see the woodpecker, it flew to a nearby tree.
The woodpecker slowly climbed up the tree from where it had landed. Eventually, it made its way up to a hole that it presumably had made in the tree. When it was at the hole that it had made, I watched as it would go most of the way into the hole where only the tail would stick out, grab wood chips that were inside of the hole, and then come back out of the hole to drop the woodchips.
Some people mistakenly call the Red-Bellied Woodpeckers Red-Headed Woodpeckers, but there is a different type of woodpecker named Red-Headed Woodpecker. The Red-Headed Woodpecker’s whole head is red while only part of the Red-Bellied Woodpeckers head is red. The red part of the Red-Bellied Woodpeckers stomach can be a bit difficult to see when you are observing them as their stomachs may be pressed up against the tree that they are in, much of the stomach is not visible.
Red-Bellied woodpeckers mainly live in the eastern part of America and Canada. They have expanded their range north. They eat insects as well as some plants like acorns, nuts, and some fruits. They put some food that they collect in between the bark of trees for later use.
Red-Bellied Woodpeckers can live for up to twelve years. They lay eggs one to three times per year. They typically lay four to five eggs but can lay three to eight eggs. It takes around twelve to fourteen days for the eggs to hatch. The young will leave the nest twenty-two to twenty-seven days after hatching.