Red-Bellied?
- jamesreddoch
- 23 hours ago
- 3 min read
By James Reddoch
The sight, and especially the sound, of certain birds can often transport me back to a specific time and place in my life. Such is the case with the call of the red-bellied woodpecker. As a young birder growing up in Mississippi, it was one of the first birds I identified after receiving a copy of the Golden Field Guide: Birds of North America from my grandmother. I was proud to report to her that I had found this woodpecker in a tree outside my bedroom window.
Of course, it was almost impossible not to notice this bird. Among the most common in our neighborhood, it stood out for its stocky, robin-like size, its loud, year-round “kweer” call, and its bold coloration—black-and-white zebra stripes across the back and a red forehead, crown, and nape on males (red limited to the nape in females).
Even though it was a conspicuous bird in our area, seeing it in my yard, finding it in my field guide, and naming it anchored that bird to that place and time in my memory. I do remember being puzzled by its common name – red-bellied woodpecker. The red on its head was unmistakable, but try as I might, I could see no red on its belly. It turns out that the reddish wash is confined to a small splotch between the bird’s legs, almost impossible to spot when it’s perched flush against a tree trunk.
Since that day, I’ve seen this bird often. It’s a species that has been steadily expanding its range northward for decades. I began seeing them in southern New England a couple of decades ago, and by the early 2020s I was hearing more and more reports of sightings in Oxford County, Maine. Despite those Maine reports, I hadn’t yet found one myself.
Then, in late October, while sitting with friends on the edge of a beaver pond deep in the Crooked River Headwaters preserve, I heard that sound. Suddenly, I was an 11-year-old boy in Mississippi again. There in front of me was a male red-bellied woodpecker, belly flat against a snag standing in the edge of the pond. It foraged among the trees the entire time we were there, and I could still hear its call as we hiked out before sunset.
A week later while I was perched on a huge boulder along the Flint Mountain Wildlands trail, it happened again. That unmistakable ‘kweer’ call rang out in the otherwise quiet afternoon forest. It was another red-bellied woodpecker!
I couldn’t be happier to be reacquainted with my old friend from childhood. Although this species is not considered migratory, Cornell’s Birds of the World notes anecdotal reports that some individuals may move south during harsh winter conditions. Join me in watching to see if these birds stay through the winter months. And while you are at it, look closely for the red on its belly –something that, after all these years, still eludes me.
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Photo Credit: This image was originally posted to Flickr by lwolfartist at https://flickr.com/photos/151817352@N04/54205841767. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.