RANGE: Breeds from southern Saskatchewan, southern Ontario, southern New Hampshire, and southern New Brunswick south to central Texas, the Gulf Coast and Florida, extending west to central Montana, eastern Wyoming, eastern Colorado, and central New Mexico, rarely to northeastern Utah. Winters regularly through the southern two thirds of the breeding range, rarely or casually north to the limits of the breeding range.
STATUS: Common, but declining in the Southeast.
HABITAT:
Inhabits relatively open forests or wood lots with low stem density, preferring
savannah-
like grasslands with scattered trees and forest edges. Attracted to areas
with many dead
trees which
provide nesting and roosting sites, and lush herbaceous ground cover that
produces
abundant insect
populations. Tends to avoid forests with closed canopies, but will move
from forest
edges to the
interior during winter.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: Relatively open forests with dead and dying trees for cavities and feeding perches.
NEST:
Nests generally in the trunk of a dead tree but sometimes in a dead limb.
Tends to select
isolated snags
for nesting, especially those without bark.
FOOD: In summer, mostly eats insects caught by hawking from perches in dead trees; stores mast, mainly acorns, beechnuts, and corn, under bark, in cracks, knotholes, and tree cavities for winter use. The red-headed woodpecker, Melanerpes erythrocephalus, is up to 10 inches long with a wingspread of 16-18 inches. Its entire head, neck and upper breast are a bright red, with bluish black wings and tail, and large areas of white on the rear part of the wings and the upper rump, especially noticeable in flight.