Red Cockaded Woodpecker
(Picoides borealis)
Physical Description:
- 8" in length with 15" wingspan
- White cheek patches and black cap and nape
- Dark with gray netlike markings on its back
- Black and white horizontal stripes on back
Range:
- Historically found from New Jersey to Florida, west to Oklahoma and Texas and inland to Missouri and Kentucky.
Habitat Description:
- Require old, living pine trees to excavate nesting and roosting cavities
- Family groups require an average of 200 acres of mature open, pine forest
Feeding:
- Feeds primarily on insects (e.g., beetles, spider, ants, roaches, etc.) secondary on soft mast (fruits and berries).
- Can often been seen scaling up and down tree trunk flaking/gleening bark in search of insects.
Breeding:
- Form family groups that assist in cooperative breeding of young, i.e., one breeding pair and 1 to 3 adult male offspring.
- Female lays 3 to 4 eggs in breeding male's nest cavity.
- Group members help incubate eggs for 10 - 12 days
- Altricial young remain in cavity about 26 days.
Interesting Trivia:
- Only woodpecker in North America that excavates its cavity in a living pine tree.
- Will create several cavities in one area (called a cluster) in which the family group lives.
- Chips holes around each cavity entrance that causes resin to bleed down the face of the tree; which helps to ward off the main nest predator- the grey rat snake.
Status:
- Federally Endangered
Causes for Decline:
- Loss of mature pine forests through forestry practices, agricultural and urban sprawl
- Fire suppression that degrades open forest conditions