A salute to the flag bird
If you see a red-headed woodpecker during your Independence Day weekend outings, call it by one of its folk names, patriot bird or flag bird.
The red-headed woodpecker’s entire head and neck are cloaked in bright red, while his back, tail and wings are jet black, contrasting with his cotton-white underside and rump. The black wings have white patches, making the bird look like a flag.
Don’t confuse the bird with a red-bellied woodpecker, a common backyard bird with a red cap extending down the nape and horizontal black-and-white bars across his back. But if you do spot a red-headed woodpecker in your yard, hoop-andholler because the patriot bird is not common in Houston neighborhoods.
It used to be fairly common back when we had more woods than suburbs. And despite Houston’s tree-lined neighborhoods, the flag bird is not quite at home here the way it used to be.
That’s because red-headed woodpeckers prefer to build nests in dead trees or in the dead branches of live trees such as pine and oak. Most of us don’t want a dead tree standing in our yard, let alone a dead branch that could be whipped off by strong winds and land on our roof.
So we chop down deadwood. Besides, dead timber is unsightly, except to a red-headed woodpecker. The bird would be delighted to nest in neighborhood dead trees because it prefers an open understory like the lawns in our yards.
But that’s not to be.
In county parks where natural forests with dead trees are preserved, a few red-headed woodpeckers may find a place to nest. The Big Thicket National Preserve in East Texas is also a place where the birds can find suitable trees for nesting homes.
The male selects an appropriate dead tree or snag and invites the female to tap on it to see if it meets her nesting requirements. If she approves, the male excavates a gourdshaped cavity between 7-23-inches deep and up to 15-inches wide, depending on the girth of the tree.
The birds occasionally nest in wooden utility poles and even in live trees, in desperation. But most seek out dead trees.
With those standing mainly in limited forest preserves, the patriot bird’s numbers have dwindled by 65 percent since 1970.
Hopefully, we can expand
tracts of natural woodlands with dead trees to help out the woodpecker who flashes colors
of the American flag.