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Discover Smith Mountain Lake
SPRING 2016
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be seen climbing around tree trunks
and limbs even before they can fly.
Except for nesting pairs, woodpeckers
live alone. There are about 23 species
of woodpeckers in North America, and
their habitat ranges from evergreen
forests to arid deserts. They belong to
the family Picidae.
Woodpeckers peck at wood for three
reasons: They are after food; they are
trying to attract a female for breeding
purposes, or they are sending out a
warning to other males of breeding
age not to come into their territory.
Woodpeckers prefer soft, rotten, insect-
infested wood. So, if a woodpecker
attacks any wood on your house or out-
buildings, be suspicious of the wood.
Too many grown men with questionable
intellect shoot woodpeckers that they
believe are destroying their houses.
In reality, instead of stalking the
woodpecker, they should use their
energy to repair the siding or stop the
leak. The woodpecker is probably doing
a favor by pinpointing the problem.
The only woodpeckers that damage
trees are Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. As
the name implies, they bore many holes
in bark in order to reach the sap of trees
and the insects that are attracted to the
sap. However, it’s doubtful a sapsucker
is ever going to bother trees in your yard,
as long as they have woods in which to
forage. They are very furtive birds, and
avoid residential areas.
One of the most beautiful birds in
North America is the Red-headed
Woodpecker. It is the size of a robin,
and you will be very lucky indeed if
you ever see one in the wild. Their
numbers have been in serious decline
over the past several decades. The
Red-headed Woodpecker is not a bird
of the deep forest or dense woods. It
prefers open woods near farmland, and
likes old orchards and hedgerows for
its habitat. It is believed that the red-
headed woodpecker flourished during
Colonial times, when land was being
cleared and there were large hedgerows
between farms. Miniature fruit trees
were unheard of in those days, and
trees had to be removed without the
benefit of heavy equipment. So it was
not unusual for Colonial farms to have
old orchards with rotting trees, which
are perfect nesting places for the Red-
headed Woodpecker. In more modern
times, replacing rotten fence posts with
metal has reduced the number of places
where they might otherwise have nested.
The use of DDT and other pesticides
has also been blamed for the decline of
these wild birds.
Add to this the European starling,
which was (tragically) introduced
into New York in 1890. The starling
adapted quickly to its new home and
multiplied rapidly, spreading across
the countryside like spilled tar. Since
the starling also nests in cavities, it
became a formidable competitor of
the red-headed woodpecker, and also
our beloved Eastern Bluebird. Thanks
to the bluebird’s size, and the efforts
of the Audubon Society, the decline of
the bluebird was halted by providing
suitable nesting boxes. Thousands of
bluebird houses with openings just
big enough for the bluebird, but too
small for starlings, have been installed
by bird lovers throughout most of the
eastern states. Another advantage for the
bluebird is that it nests earlier in the year
than the starling. Once they have a nest,
even gentle, little bluebirds will fight
valiantly to keep it.
Our roads, too, have claimed the lives
of many Red-headed Woodpeckers.
Because of their habit of perching on
fence posts or in hedge rows near roads,
they are prone to flying into the paths
of passing cars. Not only do they perch
lower to the ground then most birds,
they also dip in their flight pattern.
Sadly, the only Red-headedWoodpecker
I’ve personally seen over the past 65
years or so was dead alongside the road,
the victim of a collision with a car.
One other woodpecker that comes
WITH CHRIS WITTING
Weekdays at 12:10 PM
WSLK
Lake Radio 880
