Red-Bellied Woodpecker

2/18/2021

Bird watching from the kitchen window is a great pastime. Nature comes right up for you to see and you get to stay warm and dry! This location is great and every day there seems to be a new visitor or two. Today, there was a Red-Bellied Woodpecker that showed up. Though not a rare bird in general, they are more often found in the southern states. Here are some fun facts about this latest visitor (courtesy of The Cornell Lab).

A Red-bellied Woodpecker can stick out its tongue nearly 2 inches past the end of its beak. The tip is barbed and the bird’s spit is sticky, making it easier to snatch prey from deep crevices. Males have longer, wider-tipped tongues than females, possibly allowing a breeding pair to forage in slightly different places on their territory and maximize their use of available food.
You may sometimes see Red-bellied Woodpeckers wedge large nuts into bark crevices, then whack them into manageable pieces using their beaks. They also use cracks in trees and fence posts to store food for later in the year, a habit it shares with other woodpeckers in its genus.
The oldest known Red-bellied Woodpecker was a male in Georgia, and at least 12 years, 3 month old when he was identified in the wild by his band.

You can learn more about this bird, including its call by visiting The Cornell Lab website.