If you don’t know any better, you might mistake the Red-bellied Woodpecker’s call for that of a frog, or perhaps a clown lost in the woods. This isn’t a bird you would have heard often if you grew up in Maine, but now their loud, rolling “kwurr” can be heard commonly in the southern part of the state. Their range has been rapidly expanding northward since the 1950s as a result of climate change, tree plantings, and bird feeders. Red-bellied Woodpeckers are the only bird in the genus Melanerpes found regularly in Maine, which is why their calls may sound so unfamiliar.
This is a suet-loving species, and they seem comfortable in suburban and even urban habitats. Their diet is varied: everything from arthropods and seeds to nuts, fruit, sap, eggs, nestlings, and small vertebrates like lizards and fish. They have a chisel-shaped bill that can just as easily glean an insect from a leaf as it can hammer open an acorn. They don’t drill into bark as often as other woodpecker species, but when they do, their long, barbed tongues extract larvae and other foods from holes and crevices.
Look for the thin black and white “zebra stripe” markings on their backs, cream-colored undersides, and bright crimson heads. Males have red mullets framing their face and extending down the napes of their necks. Females have red only on the nape. But what about the red belly? Red-bellied Woodpeckers have a small, hard-to-see patch of pale red on their undersides, between their legs. They were given their English name by the same 18th century naturalist who named the Red-headed Woodpecker at around the same time, so it seems a more apt name was already taken! Their perplexing name, varied feeding behavior, and silly-sounding call make Red-bellied Woodpeckers a charismatic recent addition to Maine fauna.
Backyard Bird of the Month is a feature by Maine Audubon created for the Maine Home Garden News, the newsletter of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard
