A Memory and An Amazing Bird

I can't remember a time before our family watched, fed, and loved wild birds.  So, it's hard for me to say if I have what birders call a 'spark bird' (a special one that lit the spark to an on-going love for birds).  

I do know that one of my earliest, clearest memories of any bird was of a red-headed woodpecker.  When I was young, a neighbor friend of my mom had one coming to her feeders and we went to see it.  My, but they are beautiful birds!  No wonder it made such an impression on me.

Photo by Julie Zickefoose, used with permission

While I don't have any photos of 'my' red-headed woodpecker from years ago, you can read a delightful tale about the one above-- named Garrett, at Julie Zickefoose's house.  Click here to read her story, see more photos, and share in her excitement from when she had one coming to her bird feeders!   

I've only seen red-headed woodpeckers a few times over the years since my first one.  As a species, they have undergone a sharp decline due to various factors, such as habitat loss.  You can read more about their interesting life history by clicking here for the Cornell page about them. 

The last time I saw a red-headed woodpecker was on a road trip our family took across the USA several years ago. We saw a few of them, including two that had been hit in the road.  They commonly are hit as they forage for insects along roadsides. (Yes, we stopped to examine them).  

Red-headed woodpeckers are more often seen in the midwest than in eastern Pennsylvania. So, I was very excited to see one recently!

On Sunday afternoon, my brother and I were birding on the farm in southeastern Pennsylvania where I grew up.  We had seen lots of birds, in particular; all the kinds of woodpeckers we could expect to see there.  Downy, hairy, northern flicker, red-bellied, and pileated woodpeckers were on our list, and a yellow-bellied sapsucker that we were pretty sure of.  So, when we noticed another woodpecker, we checked it out more carefully to try to confirm a sapsucker.  We were very glad we did, because this one wasn't a sapsucker... not with those dark wings with large white patches, white belly, and brown head!

 Woo-hoo... it was an immature red-headed woodpecker!

 He or she (both look alike) was taking beechnuts from this tree, and flying to a couple of different spots close-by.   It would either quickly eat or store the nut, then fly back to get more.  

We shared the sighting with my brother's wife thru a cell phone call, and she quickly walked down to the woods to see it, too.  A neighbor even showed up on horseback, though that was a coincidence!

Woodpecker woods!

While these woodpeckers are rare in eastern Pennsylvania, and we were very excited to see it, there are still a few places where they are more common.  Julie Zickefoose writes about one of those special places in her blog post about North Bend State Park in West Virginia.  Now, that's a place to put on my bucket list to visit someday!

While I don't expect to ever add red-headed woodpecker to our property list here in northern Pennsylvania, you never know.  I remember as a kid how excited my mom was when red-bellied woodpeckers started coming to our bird feeders (and I think that's why they are still one of my favorite birds).

male red-bellied woodpecker

Red-bellied woodpeckers gradually moved northward over the last several decades, so maybe red-headed ones will get here someday, too.  I certainly would be thrilled to see one here and I'd love to have to update my post about 'Our Wonderful Woodpeckers'.  

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the memory of the one near where I grew up, and the one we saw there on Sunday!